What are you calling it?

[pkbites]

I know cecil addressed this before the turn of the century, but I'm wondering now: What are you calling the year 2000.
I dictate reports daily, and find myself calling it "the year 2000" which is odd because a year ago I wouldn't have refered to todays date as May 31st, the year 1999. I would have just said "May 31st, 1999." I find other people also saying "the year 2000" rather than just 2000. Why are some of us refering it as the "year 2000"? Any comments or observations about this?

[Achernar]

I don't know. Maybe I just hang with the wrong crowd, but I've never heard (or at least I've heard seldom enough to forget) people saying "May 31st, the year 2000". When you're saying the whole date, then "May 31st, 2000" strikes me as being the norm. For the most part, I think that in colloquial speech, 2000 is treated just the same as, say, 1967.

One exception, of course, is when the year is abbreviated to two digits. Eg. "The class of two thousand", as opposed to "The class of ninety-eight". Oddly enough, though, while I've always heard it pronounced like this, I've seen it written as either "The class of 2000" or an unpronouncable "The class of '00". Anyone who says "The class of zero" probably just thinks they're being clever.

[Catfood Purrito]

I work for a doctor who, when he dictates the date of a patient note, says "double aught." (is that how you spell that? I've no idea.) For instance, he'll say, "six, one, double aught" for today's date, which I have found to be increasingly annoying. Aside from him, everyone I know just says "two thousand."

[AWB]

I say "oooo", rhyming with "goo".

"What's today's date, AWB?"

"Six-one-oooo."

Irritates the hell out of people.

[manhattan]

There being to my knowledge no "Official Board on Annular Nomenclature", this is really more of an "opinion solicitation" kind of thing. So I'll move the thread to In My Humble Opinion.