No Stupid Questions @lemmy.world TheImpressiveX @lemmy.ml 2w ago

At what point do you stop calling the years "two thousand and X" and start calling them "twenty X"?

Throughout my life, I've always heard people refer to the early 21st century years as "two thousand and X". For example, they pronounced 2001 as "two thousand and one". In my experience, during the mid-2010s there seemed to be a shift in the way people said it, and the first time I heard someone say it differently was in 2016, where they pronounced it as "twenty sixteen".

Most people I've heard pronounced the late-2010s years as "two thousand and X", although the pronunciation "twenty X" had started to catch on fast. By the year 2020, almost nobody used the "two thousand and X" pronunciation, except for very old people I knew. For example, most people would pronounce 2024 as "twenty twenty-four" and not "two thousand and twenty-four".

My question is: what year is the cutoff date for pronouncing the early 21st century years as "two thousand and X?" I've always heard people say it that way prior to 2016, I've never heard someone pronounce, say, 2007 as "twenty oh seven".

I hope I was able to properly articulate what I'm trying to say.

42 comments

Most people I know start at 2010.
- My brain hurts. I've just spent like 3 minutes stating how the "and" isn't something I ever heard before. Then I said how it goes all the way to 2019. Then I remembered I don't remember anyone calling it Two Thousand Nineteen. It's Twenty Nineteen. But 2011 is Two Thousand Elevin, but I HAVE heard Twenty Elevin. And same with 2010.
  
  So now it becomes a matter of geolocation region preferences. Different people switched over at different times. And I am NOT about to go spend my time researching thousands of different data points of who says what and when.
  
  screams into a pillow
  
  People may have also switched some years retroactively. I definitely said two thousand ten back then, but would say twenty ten now.
  
  You are allowed to write "eleven"
  
  If you want to be a bit pedantic the and is incorrect for a year. When you say a number the and should be to denote a decimal portion of a number. It's generally not always used that way so context is often required to determine the intent.
For me it was

2000: Two thousand

2001: Two thousand one (or less formally "oh one")

2009: Two thousand nine ("oh nine")

2010: Twenty ten

And from there on. I think this is because of the amount of syllables. That's why we switch to "twenty" instead of "two thousand".
- You're on to something but I doubt it's the syllables. Rather it seems about phonetic ambiguity.
  
  "twentynine" could mean both 29 and 2009, so it's better to use "twothousandandnine" for the latter. "twentyten" cannot be interpreted as 30, only as 2010.
  
  You can do "2009" as "twenty oh 9", but that feels kinda awkward. "Two thousand nine" has the same number of syllables (4). "Twenty ten" is 3. "Two thousand ten" is 4.
  
  Even "1900" is "nineteen hundred" (4) vs "one thousand nine hundred" (6).
  
  ETA: I'm the class of "Oh two" rather than "zero two" because the former is one less syllable.
- I personally say "o one" "o two" etc. all the way up to "o nine" After that it just seems weird to say "ten" or "eleven" instead of "twenty ten"
  
  Even referring to 1910 as "ten" seems weird and wrong, though. In my mind, it doesn't make sense to leave the nineteen off until the 40s. For example, saying: "Back in forty-five" sounds right, but "Back in thirty-five" sounds wrong to me for some reason.
- Simple as.
2010, simply because of how english works.

If you say 2001 as twenty one, it's confusing. Same goes all the way up to "twenty nine".

And it's more garbled and slower to say "twenty oh one" vs "two thousand one", especially if you're speaking quickly.

"Twenty ten" and up, however, starts making sense as a different piece of information and can be used easily.
- I was gonna say most of this. I would just add that now, when referring to a year between 2001 and 2009, I just say "oh [number]". So I'd say "Did Batman Begins come out in '05 or '06?"
- I say twenty oh one just because i dislike inconsistency and prefer twenty oh over two thousand
- Your assuming this isn't a stupid question.
2010-2012 I'd say
- I agree,
  
  2009 and before have to be "two thousand and" style
  
  2013 and after have to be "twenty-" style
  
  The years between can be either, but I'd lean toward using "twenty-" style for those too.
  
  How do you say 1901 then? One thousand nine hundred and one? Nineteen hundred and one? Or nineteen oh one? Have you ever heard of the Eighteen Hundred and Twelve Overture?
  
  I'm in the "twenty oh one" etc camp, it's concise and consistent.
2010
*Two thousand and Twitter.
- *two thousand and (formerly twitter)
Man......I'm just sooooo SO pissed off at language. In the 90s, I loved calling the current decade "the 90s". Then 2000 came, and people were like "It's the aughts!" to which I said "NO! FUCK YOU! I HATE IT, AND YOU SHOULD BURN IN A POOL OF NAPALM FOR EVEN SUGGESTING THAT!!!"

That being said 2000-2010 and 2010-2020 don't have a cool term for either of their respective decade names. So for 20 years I've been saying "OH MAN!!! I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL 2020 WHEN WE CAN END THIS MADNESS, AND CALL IT THE 20s AGAIN!!!"

Imagine my disappointment. Waiting 20 years for the year 2020 to arrive, excited to see what 2020 would bring. And then.....2020 happened. Now, if you forget what happened that year, that would be a result of the covid affecting your brain, and also your psyche trying to mentally block out images of horror. It's something that brains do when faced with intense psychological horror. Which is exactly how I would describe 2020. Imagine waiting 20 years, and THAT'S what you get.

Fuck

Earth.
- The noughties, the teenies, and the twenties.
  
  burns that pile of tinder you call a home go the ground
2010 but skipping 2011 because twenty eleven sounds weird out loud imo
- Seven Eleven has left the chat
I also started using the new nomenclature after 2009. It also coincided to when I finished school so it kinda fit the change in lifestyle.
I always say
"two thousand"
"Oh one, oh two, oh three..."
"Twenty ten, twenty eleven..."
In twenty oh one.

So I skip twenty oh oh (twenty hundred?) in favor of the year two thousand
1999
Where my twelvethousandtwentyfive people at?! We don't care about the Jesus, Neolithic Revolution all the way!
I was saying "twenty oh x" in 2001. Twenty oh one. Twenty oh two. And so on. I only ever said "two thousand" for 2000. Because "twenty oh oh" sounds dumb.
2013+
I remember discussing this in 1998ish and the concensus then was saying "twenty ___ " only.made sense statting in 2020. I actually started doing in the early 2010's.
Two thousand was obvious.
Two thousand and one as well, thanks to Stanley Kubrick.
I made a determined effort somewhere around 2004 to go back to the previous century's naming, and call the first decade "aught," as in "twenty aught six."

Nobody followed me in that.

Even so, I now refer to all years except 2000 and maybe 2001 as "twenty (aught/oh) <year>." Good riddance to "two thousand seven" as a year.
That happened back in Twenty Ten

42 comments