From Ian Coldicott
Norwich
Charles Pochin points out the anomalous use of the letter O for the
number 0 in British telephone numbers (Letters, 2 March, p 50). Other European
countries cope with this rather better. For instance in Denmark the numbers
(eight digits) are always quoted in four blocks (so 3186-7050 would be said as
thirty-one, eighty-six, seventy, fifty). Any 00 combination is “null, null”
(zero, zero). With eight digits, this convention is simple.
In Britain, the length of numbers is variable and the many changes to STD
codes have made it harder for consistent usage to emerge. The use of 0 is well
established in spoken English (such as saying the number 306 as three oh six,
rather than three hundred and six). For a combination of reasons, we have
resisted breaking our numbers into two-digit combinations and therefore find
them harder to transmit accurately. Numbers tend to be given as single digits,
which can be confusing. My office number 222732, is tricky to convey using
phrases such as “two, double two”, or “triple two”, but simplicity itself when
expressed as “twenty-two, twenty-seven, thirty-two”.
Whether our usages will converge with the rest of Europe is a moot point.
Advertisement
