Names for the number 0 in English Names for the number 0 in English Zero is the usual name for the number 0 in English. In British English "nought" is also used. In American English "naught" is used occasionally for zero, but as with British English, "naught" is more often used as an archaic word for nothing. "Nil", "love", and "duck" are used by different sports for scores of zero. It is quite common in English to describe decades with a plural of the first year of the decade for example "the nineties" which can be written as "the 90s". There was a debate on what to
Anyone for tennis? Anyone for tennis? The phrase Anyone for tennis? is thought to have originated from George Bernard Shaw's 1914 play "Misalliance", in which Johnny Tarleton asks "Anybody on for a game of tennis?" This phrase is often used to typify a particular genre of drawing room comedy about the leisured upper class. This phrase has been used several times in popular culture, including in the song "Beautiful Girl" in the movie musical "Singin' in the Rain," and as the title of a song by the British blues-rock band Cream. It is also mentioned in the popular 1975 song "Patricia the Stripper"