How do/will you say "2010"?
Asked by
MrItty (
17406
)
September 14th, 2009
Is it “two thousand ten”, like we’ve been doing for the past 10 years? Or is it “twenty ten”, like we did for centuries before this decade?
Personally, I’m all for going back to two pairs of two digit numbers. The only reason we stopped doing that in the first place is because “twenty hundred” just sounds stupid. “twenty oh one” would have been just as fine as “nineteen oh one” was…
What’s your opinion? How will you pronounce the years starting in a few months?
(Side note – can we all at least agree that our descendents should be saying “twenty-one <whatever>” rather than “two thousand one hundred <whatever>”?)
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67 Answers
i think two thousand ten sounds better
I read your question like 20–10 in my head. 20–01 would have sounded like 21 (an existing number that is nothing like 2001), 20–10 is not an existing number so it will cause no confusion.
Two thousand ten. Not “two thousand and ten”.
However, I think that by the year 2100, we better start using the “hundred” method. I see 2100 as “twenty one hundred”. Imagine how long it would take to say 2177 as “two thousand one hundred seventy seven”. Much more practical to say “twenty one seventy seven”.
We always say the Battle of Hastings took place in Ten Sixty Six, not One Thousand Sixty Six.
I suppose common parlance will rule.
Ooh, excellent point, @IchtheosaurusRex Those of you who say “two thousand ten”, how do you pronounce the year 1010 or 1050 or 1075? Do you say “one thousand <whatever>” or “ten <whatever>”? And if you say “ten <whatever>”, why the difference between 10XX and 20XX?
Twenty Ten it is for our home. We’re already saying it this way since we write it on documents and are computing this way.
@MrItty
I say “ten ten”, “ten fifty”, and “ten hundred”. I just say “two thousand ten” because I’m used to it. Like I said, I really hope this “thousand” crap stops when we get to 2100. Too much of a mouthful.
I refer to it as “The Year We Make Contact”.
Two thousand ten , Tho i dare say some places folks will say 2010 depending the situation like olympics are 20–12
@DominicX yes but… weren’t you significantly more used to “nineteen <whatever>”? I mean, assuming you’re more than 20 years old I guess.
two thousand and ten
Because 2000.0+10.0=2010.0
Twenty ten. The other way is too long.
@MrItty
I’m 18, actually. I’m just surrounded by people who say “two thousand” whatever (my parents, people on TV, my friends, etc.), so I’ve come to say it myself. Every year in the second millenium (1000–1999), I say using “ten”, “eleven”, “sixteen”, etc.
I think it has to do with the fact that “two thousand and” or “one thousand and” takes much less time to say that “two thousand six hundred and”. Once the years get too big people won’t say it like that anymore.
@teh_kvlt_liberal 1900 + 70 = 1970. Was that year “one thousand ninehundred and seventy”? Was it even “nineteen and seventy”?
@teh_kvlt_liberal in fact, 2000 + 9 = 2009. Do you call this year “two thousand and nine”?
Yes, it’s two thousand and nine
For the record, I’ve always said “two thousand eight”, “two thousand one”, etc. The “and” is a bit too much for me. Most people I know do not use the “and”.
This is two thousand and nine , how else would we say it ? twenty nine ?
@sandystrachan (or “twenty oh nine”, but I admit I’ve never heard anyone actually say that.)
Heh. I’ve always said “and” . I guess that I’ve been saying it wrong.
I would’ve said two thousand ten but now you’re sort of making me want to say 20 10 instead lol
As a member of the class of 2010, I can tell you that everyone here refers to our class as twenty-ten. Not once have I heard “class of two thousand ten.”
I’ll take a cue from the venerable Charles Osgood (CBS “Sunday Morning). Since 2001 he has used the “twenty”. Icall this year twenty-o-nine and next year twenty-ten.
Like @markyy I also said twenty ten in my head when I read your question. So, although I have never thought of it until today I will probably say twenty ten.
@teh_kvlt_liberal As @The_Compassionate_Heretic said, you are incorrect. mathematically AND signifies a decimal
so 2000 and 9 would be 2000.9 and two thousand and ten would be 2000.10
If youre going to try and correct people at least be right….
Personally i say twenty ten, but thats just me
It’ll be two thousand ten for me.
Actually, I misread who was being addressed. Still, there’s no correct way. :)
@DominicX: The question didn’t ask the correct way… the question asked how we will say it.
Lets just face people around the world have different ways to say things, does it really need to be this way ? Let it be , we are ALL right
@DominicX Maybe we thought it was a friendly discussion?! :)
Well, the first century of a millennium has always been used like that, hasn’t it? How would you say 1044 ad? ten hundred forty four or thousand forty four?
the only thing what anyone is really debating is the whole “and” thing… or atleast IMO
@oratio
A lot of people say “ten forty four”. At least, that’s what I say. Same goes for a house address 1044. Same with the time 10:44. Just makes it easier for me.
I find it interesting though that an address “2009” would most likely be called “twenty oh nine”, but the year is “two thousand nine” for most.
ten sixty six The battle of…...
In FOURTEEN NINETY TWO, Columbus sailed the Ocean blue.
@DominicX I guess you are right. I was thinking in swedish here.
I hear a lot of people tripping over this as they refer to “the 2009–2010 season” or “fiscal year 2009–2010.” Some who’ve been using shorthand (oh-one, oh-two) and are used to saying “oh-eight oh-nine” are now saying “oh-nine oh-ten”!
For me it’s definitely twenty-ten. I was born in the middle of the twentieth century and was used to that way of speaking the years for a very long time before this short interruption with the first decade of the two thousands.
@Jeruba Yes, indeedy…I’ve been saying oh-9 & oh-10 as shorthand, eventhough it’s incorrect, it’s fast
Twenty-ten sounds much better than “two thousand and ten” – plus, as @DominicX mentioned, that way of speaking is going to get REAL tedious once there are hundreds involved again. May as well get on the bandwagon now, I say, and make it all uniform once more. I’m sure our descendants will be calling this year “twenty oh-nine” and giggling that we all went around talking about “the year two thousand and…” for so long.
Two thousand and ten would be a British way :-).
You say Tomatoes and we say…err… Tomatoes.
Let’s call the whole thing off ;-)
Well, I wonder how we’ll pronounce the shorthand two-digit version?
2009 is often referred to as oh-nine.
Will we refer to 2010 simply as ten in two-digit reference? Or will we always refer to it by all four digits?
—
Sometimes I’d want to refer to 2000 in two-digit form as double aught. But that passed.
The 2000’s were the noughties…. would that make the 2010’s the “wantees”?
(“tentees” didn’t seem as funny)
I do pronounce it Twenty Ten, though I would simply write out ‘10.
For the past years I’ve only said “Two-thousand [and] nine” in formal situations. In casual encounters, it’d just be “Oh nine”.
I do see the point in the OP, like why we would say “19 42” but not say “20 09”. “Twenty Oh Nine” just feels cumbersome with that “oh”, and without the “oh”, well, people wouldn’t know if you mean 29 or 2009.
@PaulCC, ah, that would explain it. Canadian here, part of the Commonwealth. Color/colour..favorite/favourite. Makes sense to me.
I’ve been saying “twenty-ten” in reference to it for a long time now.
I’m so two thousand and eight, you so two thousand and late!
twenty-ten.
they said nineteen-ten, so why not 20-ten. you know?
twothousand and ten. because it sounds better.
This will probably be settled by TV news anchors.
How do we refer to this decade? The aughts?
@The_Compassionate_Heretic: I’ve heard people call it “the two thousands” but I think that sounds kind of dumb, personally. Not to mention ambiguous.
I say ‘09 or Two Thousand Nine but I think Twenty Ten sounds better than Two Thousand Ten. A guy on the local radio here says Twenty O Nine and it gets on my nerves.
@La_chica_gomela I agree. It’s going to be the 2000’s for a while yet. Our great great grand children will have an easier time of things in 2110.
I think I am going to be a twenty-ten kind of gal.
Like SLF sings-It is supected device two thousand ten.
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