A clockDo you say “zed” or “zee”?
If you’re in the UK, the answer might reveal your age, clinical linguist Dr Coral Hoh previously told HuffPost UK; younger people tend to prefer the Americanised version.
Even your use of the space bar can be a tell-tale sign of your generation.
And now, a new post shared to Reddit’s r/AskUK suggests new horror: apparently, the kids don’t say “noon”.
When booking a pub reservation, u/Gloomy_Stage says the young worker on the phone didn’t understand what they meant by the word.
“I was taken aback that the girl didn’t know what noon meant, she was probably young… but I had always assumed it was a commonly used word or am I getting old?” they asked.
We spoke to Anna Pyshna, spokesperson at online language learning platform Preply, about what was really going on.
Younger people almost always know the word but aren’t as likely to use it
There are some generational changes, Pyshna says, but not so much that the word has disappeared from young peoples’ minds entirely.
“Language changes over time, but that doesn’t mean older words just vanish,” she explained.
″‘Noon’ isn’t something most young people in the UK say often, but they still know what it means ― they’re just more likely to say ’12,′ ‘midday,’ or even ‘lunchtime’ instead.”
I’ll be honest, I don’t say it much as a woman in her 20s. And now that I think about it, I’m not sure my friends do either.
“The reason ‘noon’ might sound old-fashioned is because it has a more formal, almost clinical vibe to it,” she added (yep, I definitely think of it as a little stiff).
“Younger people tend to gravitate towards words that feel more fluid and less rigid. ‘Lunchtime,’ for example, is more relaxed and practical – often used in the context of daily routines.
″‘Noon,’ on the other hand, feels more tied to a schedule or specific time, which can feel a bit disconnected from the more laid-back way younger people communicate these days.”
The trend has even affected her teaching
Pyshna says that language tutors try to focus on language that is “current and natural,” meaning she’s less likely to teach the word to those learning English.
Tutors “understand that younger learners want to communicate in a way that aligns with how they actually speak ― rather than relying on older terms,” she added.
“So, while ‘noon’ might still be in the dictionary, it’s not something you’ll hear in everyday conversations among younger Brits.”
