In Canada and England, “Z scale” is pronounced “zed scale” and I know that in the U.S., the letter “z” is pronounced “zee” so I’m sure the scale is pronounced “zee scale.” However, I recall seeing an article in Model Railroader a number of years ago which described the various scales and it stated that it was pronounced “zed scale.” My U.S. friends insist that it would never be pronounced this way, so did I dream that M.R. article or is there actually an exception to the pronounciation of the letter “z”?
…Bob
Hi,
as far as I know , this letter was choosen because it is the last letter of the alphabet, so that no one came make something smaller.
So the origin is german.
and the Germans used to pronounce"tzed".
For the rest , as this letter is used by everywhere, i think the better way is to say it in your own langage… who cares ? till the person your are talking with , knows what you means.
For exemple , "o scale " is call null (the number 0)in Germany, in France, in Denmark …
regards
Vincent
When it first came out, Linn Westcott (I think) strongly suggested that it be called “zed” because that was how the rest of the world would say it.
–David
And when my American father would ask my Australian mother "Just how do you spell “zed?” she would answer “zed ee dee.”
Dave Nelson
No one at MODEL RAILROADER today pronouces it any way other than “zee” scale. The late Gordon Odegard might have been heard to say “zed” if he was trying to be cute, but then we knew he didn’t really mean it!
So long,
Andy
Andy Sperandeo
MODEL RAILROADER Magazine
Americans are the only English speaking people to say “Zee”; the rest of the english speaking world says “Zed.” The Americans got their pronunciation from the French. But what I find interesting, is that if they picked it up from the French, it must have been French Canadians because those were the most French in there area at the time of the acquisition of the letter “Zee.”
Seems odd, but let’s face it, O scale is really 0,[the number], and HO is really H0.
The original number 0 was called “ought” in the English language, but became “Oh” in all English speaking countries, except for the USA, who tended to use “Zero”.
Now “Zero” is used in most countries, but the holdovers “Oh” and “Aitch Oh” remain with us Model Railroaders.
regards / Mike
I was taught that “O” is the letter, “Zero” is the number. In the military, this is an important distinction. Any can tell Navy novels written by non-Navy people because they get the two confused. So the non-Navy guy will have his character say - "Steer “O"35” Instead of - Steer “Zero35”.
Well, I certainly learned more than I expected to when I asked that question. Thanks to all who replied. I think Vincent puts it best when he says “say it in your own language.” As for the Model Railroader article, I suspect that some day I will come across it again when looking through my 30+ years of back issues and will find that what has been suggested is true.
…Bob
Well, I did find that article in Model Railroader. It was on page 79 of the December, 1974 issue, titled “Getting started in this hobby”, and was bylined “by the MR Staff.” Linn Westcott was the editor at the time. I was sure it was in a more recent issue, but I may be mistaken. I would suspect that at that time Z scale was so new that many people felt it should be pronounced the European way since the scale was started by Märklin in Germany.
…Bob
The best part of all of this is the “ultimcy” of letters or numbers…at one time #0 scale/gauge was thought to be the “smallest possible”…of course, along came 00, then H0…smaller still…then came 000 [Rapido 160:1] and Lone Star,I think at 148:1, which all later morphed into “N” scale at 160:1.
I think "Z’ for 220:1 was a poor choice of nomenclature, because what will we call the next smaller scale/gauge??? HZ is probably too small, but maybe something about 300:1 is not???What would one call THAT ???
regards / Mike
The Yanks have never got it right:)
It’s Zed.
Jim
Australia.
Didn’t he used to have a band -
Zed Lepplin 
I think "Z’ for 220:1 was a poor choice of nomenclature, because what will we call the next smaller scale/gauge???
Zn3
…and a great band it was, with Plobert Rant, and Pimmy Jage, too !
regards /Mike
No that was the American Band Leed Zeeplin.
Jim.
A large part of the world (including Canada) was part of the British Empire at one time, and as a result uses British English. The United States of America stands apart to a large degree in its use of American English. Aside from the zed example, a number of words that we in Canada and in many other countries spell with a ‘u’, an ‘American’ dictionary would not. I find it quite hilarious that the Government of Canada had all its Microsoft products shipped with the United States dictionary as the default, which would result in the spell checker giving many false hits.
Trivia, but oh well.
Americans don’t speak english, we speak Merikan, and thats why we say ZEE.[:p][:p][:p][:p][:p][:p]
The Americans got ‘Zee’ from England, where ‘Zed’ also came from. It’s a regional variation (IIRC ‘Zee’ was common in parts of northern England, where many of the Puritans came from. ‘Zed’ is the Proper English pronounciation, and regional differences in pronounciation are disappearing everywhere, courtesy of TV and Radio.
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