quick! lol ce has a question and i dont know the answer

[lauren grier]

^_^

this is a bad moment people.. you don't understand. I'm supposed to know everything hahahahaha he even complains about it :p


He asked me what time it was.. and i said 10:09 (this was a c ouple minutes ago.. ive been trying to come up with an answer) . he wants to know why it's "oh" nine .. and not "zero nine" .. he says "O is a letter not a number mom it shouldn't be in the time"...

I need a very brainy answer cause he didnt' accept my "that's how we say it" :p

[lovely1m]

Tell him, its slang, he is right and it should be zero nine, but that in common everyday language we say oh nine instead. Does that work?

[lauren grier]

he said... and i quote.. "I am going to say zero nine.. I want more of an answer" ..

haha he's a pita.

[carriesmom]

Tell them that it is because way back when people kept confusing the zero for the letter O and starting calling it O all the time and since that time "oh" had become an acceptable synomn for zero. And the people who developed fonts and type started making the zero look different than the letter O.

[neenee]

Wow La! He is so smart! Cuz....ya know...I agree with him why do we say "O".

So, I have no brainy answer!:p

[Leila]

It's just a 'nickname' for the number like Ce is a nickname for him. That explanation worked for Devin a while back, since we call him D. LOL!

[momtutu]

Oh my...DS asked me this same question one time. I told him because it's faster to say "oh 9" instead of "zero 9" because it has fewer syllables. :-)

[jessica31876]

I would tell him it is a shorter way of saying zero (since "oh" is the last syllable of zero). Like when you say can't instead of cannot or won't instead of will not. Plus it sounds funny saying ten zero nine. you could just start saying it is nine after ten or nine past ten LOL

[aggiefamily]

How about it is nine minutes after 10? We have had the same conversation.

[glumirk]

Well, has he asked about why we say "Ten o' clock"? the "o'" really stands for "of the".

Because time is one of the most talked about subjects (Aside from maybe the weather) people got lazy and had to make it as easy as possible to talk about. Saying "o" is so much easier than saying "zero", and they look the same. I like the "dropped the zer off of zero" approach too. You can really say that it's "ten 'o nine". That little apostrophe makes all of the difference!

[Jenn Barrette]

I don't know about your example (oh 9) but if you are saying 10 o'clock for example it is shortened form of "of the clock" or "according to the clock".

[lauren grier]

thanks girlies :] I made him drop it and go to bed last night cause he was making me crazy ^_^ I'll tell him everything you said when he gets up though (as he'll start asking all over again :p .. he's quite persistant. )

[Milmomma]

I believe it became more constant when the military made it kinda official. 0100 hours. We don't say zero one hundred hours. It is said Oh one hundred hours. So if the military does it, we all should too right. They are part of the government ;)

Okay so that's all probably not true but it sounded good!

[Shawna Clingerman]

Tell him the "O" is actually short for "O-for-the-love-of-god-stop-asking-me-this!"

[lauren grier]

Tell him the "O" is actually short for "O-for-the-love-of-god-stop-asking-me-this!"

haha i love you

[scrap2day]

Tell him the "O" is actually short for "O-for-the-love-of-god-stop-asking-me-this!"

This is my favorite answer. It gave me a good laugh on a Monday morning.

[Angie4b1g]

Shawna wins.