Zee versus zed

[Ohwhatfuckeryitistoride]

This week I've been running visual acuity tests for year 7s. I soon noticed that about 80% of them say zee instead of zed. Now I know language changes etc, it's a mix of us influences and maybe learning phonics in primary, but it made me feel unaccountably sad.
Do your kids say zed or zee?

I am presuming she meant like dummies. She didn't make it clear - could've been like a cloth that they carry round with them (not sure what the official term is, we call them bye-byes!) but dummies seems more likely.
There you go - use a different word and some people won't be sure what you mean. It's all about communication (and context).

Who decides which word is the different one though?

We are all zeds in this house, aggressively so. Just this morning I warned dh that if he carries on growing his beard people will think he's in zed zed top.

My two had a phase in 2020/21 of being influenced by minecraft videos and saying levver. This was awkward as it was unclear whether they meant leather or lever and both items would have fitted in context.

Route is another Americanism that jars as it sounds like you're gouging something out in a DIY project rather than following a way. Pissed is very different to being pissed off!

I'm not keen on Zee. It sounds too much like the 3rd letter of the alphabet.

If anyone asks how I am, I resolutely reply “fine, thank you” instead of the now ubiquitous “good, thanks”.

Is the flashlight thing because most young'uns will have used the flashlight function on their phone and may never have seen or held an actual torch?

Well, ZED is correct in England.

Yes! Why change it? This is not an example of " language is always evolving". And have you noticed that no company recruits anymore? They're all "hiring".

What can you do? Stop letting children spend so much time on-line that they are more influenced by that than the people they live with.

Pissed gets me really pissed off. They kept saying it on Big Brother last night and I kept shouting at the tv “It’s OFF, PISSED OFF”.

My DS has also said ‘rowt’ for route. “You can take that rowt to miss the traffic” - me screaming in the car “It’s ROOT for God’s sake it’s pronounced root, we’re not American”. It makes me irrationally angry.

It’s not wrong to pronounce it as Haitch though. The UK has more than one accent.

Fair point. I didn’t know it was regional. You learn something new every day.

"Can I get a coffee?"

No. Not if you are the customer. The staff will get it and you may have it.

I agree, J is jai, I'm in my 50s and have never heard or pronounced it any differently. I'm northern if that's a clue.

Another common misconception. "Can I get a coffee" is fine, "get" can mean to receive ("What did you get for your birthday?") as well as to fetch ("I'll get that down from the shelf").

the Cambridge online dictionary also lists "to buy" as one of the meanings of the word.

Is “jai” the same as “jay”, or more like “jye”?

Not all heroes wear capes 😂

My 3 yo picked up Zee from his yellow school bus, and every single time I correct him to Zed "because we're English". It's now about 50/50 which he says, so I'll take it as a win for now.

Zee is American so most kids nowadays will have picked this up from Tik Tok or whatever shite they watch and listen to. I had pupils referring to diapers, trash, movies etc when I was teaching. They were far more likely to use American words than our own local ones.

This is timely.

DS asked me about Zee v Zed this week. Especially in the context of Pokémon.

I explained we speak English not American English and that Pokémon is translated for an American audience but the use of Z in Pokémon Z was as the name of something.

Therefore it's pronounced correctly as Zee for Pokémon as it's a Proper Noun and it would be like deliberately mispronuncing his name if said Pokémon Zed.

But otherwise the correct use of Z is Zee in English.

This also covers Generation Z and Zee not Zed.

He seemed satisfied with this explanation. Then preceded to interrogate me over the usage of Z in Canada, Australia and New Zealand at which point I decided to change the bloody subject!

Yes. Is that the Tim Harford Cautionary Tales? It really jars with me too.

Yes - you can really notice it!!

My Nokia has 'torch'!

@muddyford my iPhone also says torch - quite surprised!

Yes- especially as it’s on BBC sounds. I think it’s made originally by an American podcast company so he will be making it for them. But why not just use the British terms. If you are listening to that podcast you aren’t hard of thinking, you can cope with maths, torch and rubbish.

That's interesting. My dh's Redmi (Chinese) phone says torch too.