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Comment by 1659447091 | Hacker News Reader

anytime I hear someone use "zed" for Z(ee) the next thing I hear in my head is "Zed's dead, baby"[0] Pulp Fiction and I just can't help but chuckle

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E3aAvhUucI

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I emigrated from the UK to USA in 1980 and my first code review at Bell Labs I spent about 30 mins explaining my code and then asked if there were any final questions and someone hesitantly asked, "What is this variable 'zed' you keep talking about?"

I used to work for a networking start-up and when we were in the US trying - without success - to sell the company we practised over and over saying "roWter" for "router" (English pronunciation like "rooter").

As a Canadian I read that as "rOATer" for a moment, because the word row rhyming with ow is quite uncommon here -- the row I know is in a boating or a data context.

As a Brit, so did I. That said, a "rotor" would be pronounced as "rOATer" and has a completely different meaning.

isn't English fun !

You never have a row with anyone?

As a Canadian, obviously not.

(For real though we don’t use that word for argument or whatever.)

Funny, I just realised that I say "rooter" in French (because route ("roote") means way, like in English), but I say "rAWter" in English

There are two words with the same spelling but separate pronunciations in British English:

Router (rooter) the thing that routes packets in a newtwork

Router (rowter) a machine tool that cuts grooves, etc., in wood or metal.

Ah, so I pronounce the IT equipment wrong. I guess that "raw-ter" sounds really bad then.

Having posted the above a few days ago, last night I (originally from the UK) was in the car with my wife (US born and bred) following and reciting map directions on my phone like "0.8 miles left on San Antonio" which I say as UK standard "nought point eight miles left on San Antonio." After a while she asks "what is nought?" Here we just say "point 8 miles" or "zero point eight miles." We've only been married 42 years and are still learning each other's language:-)

Some time ago a few people from the UK kept calling/referring to someone as a nonce. It took me awhile to say something, but I finally asked because I simply couldn't understand or wrap my head around why they kept referring to this person as a single use random number (mostly for authentication in my case). It was so confusing.

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