newbie math lessons 1 - 100, how about zero?

[saelfaer]

Hi,

i just went trough the 3 newbie lessons
where you go from 1 - 10, 10-20 and 20 - 100
but i was thinking about what would be the correct word for Zero?
according to the dictionary, i can find both
Zero and Rei

in what cases do you used 1, and in which the other?
or are there more translations i dont even know about.

[jemstone]

i'm not sure abt rei... but i've heard of ze-ro (used in the beginner's season 1 new year countdown lesson) and maru ("japanisu podo ichi maru ichi de gozaimasu", sounds familiar?)

i think when telling people your cellphone number or any numbers (house unit number) you would use "ze-ro" because it would be meaningless if you tell people something like this,
"my phone number is 7 million 4 hundred and 69 thousand etc...".
so in cases like these, you could use ze-ro or maru.

but i think ze-ro sounds more like a number. maru is actually a kanji word for ball or ball-like.

[Javizy]

Rei is the correct choice for phone numbers, but maru is the appropriate word for door numbers among other things. I think you can get away with zero for everything, since katakana is so ridiculously overused, so it might be safest to stick to that until you have heard the others used in context.

[Psy]

Oddly enough (and contrary to what Javizy wrote), most of the time I've heard zero and maru with phone numbers. As far as I can tell they're all interchangeable (lucky this isn't korean!)-- maru is just like saying "oh" in English, like 101 "one oh one." Also, zero is far more common than rei.

Just my experience talking. Corrections welcome.

[Javizy]

I've heard rei used (for phone numbers) in a few podcasts regularly including the yomiuri news one, and I'm pretty sure it was used in that lesson explaining phone numbers (though that seems like a long time ago now). Perhaps it has a more formal nuance?

I only have limited exposure to Japanese, especially natural conversational Japanese, so I'd take what I say with a pinch of salt, I'm just talking from what I have encountered.

[jemstone]

Rei is the correct choice for phone numbers

that is good to know. i never knew what 0 was in japanese... like saelfaer, i only knew 1 to whatever number like hyaku, sen, man and so on, but never knew 0. =P