I noticed that I and Alexa say “six ‘oh’ five a m”, but is that the correct way of saying the time? Specifically the “oh” part?
Kind of like when speaking out a phone number, how we might say “my number is one two three, six ‘oh’ six…” but really, that’s not an “oh” like the letter O even though it looks like an O, but everyone knows the person is saying “six zero six”, which is the proper way of saying that.
Edit: thanks for all the answers everyone! This was just pure curiosity for me but I really enjoyed reading everyone’s responses and learning some new things!
In phone numbers we can often mix oh and zero, but you’d very rarely (if ever) use zero in time. Perhaps in the military (or similar organisations): zero/oh six hundred hours. I’d naturally say oh.
When telling the time, I get my students to say: six oh five, three oh eight, five oh two, etc. The alternatives would be ‘past’ and approximations: five past six, and just after six.