# How do you pronounce 2013?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [October 4, 2013, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350 "2013-10-04T13:51:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2013, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350/1 "2013-10-04T13:51:00Z")
How do you pronounce the name of this year? Two thousand thirteen (or two thousand and thirteen), or twenty-thirteen? Or some other way?
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### Author:  [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2013, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350/2 "2013-10-04T14:08:10Z")
The American “Two thousand thirteen” and the British/Commonwealth “Two thousand _and_ thirteen” pronunciations are totally different kettles of fish and really should be seperate poll options IMHO…
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2013, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350/3 "2013-10-04T14:10:54Z")
I’ve pronounced the post-2000 dates both ways, depending on the context. In conversation, I prefer to say and hear “twenty-thirteen” (unless it’s actually twenty-eleven we’re talking about, of course).
In any kind of “technical” talk, such as planning or financial discussion, I usually say “two thousand eleven/twelve/thirteen” because it seems more precise.
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### Author:  [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2013, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350/4 "2013-10-04T14:14:01Z")
I was always taught that putting “and” in the middle of a number string denoted a decimal mark. Saying “Two thousand and thirteen” would register to me as a price - $2000.13
At least now I know that’s not the case in some other countries. I already get a little twinge here when salespeople in the usa put the “and” in improper places, confusing the numbers they’re trying to convey.
I prefer “two thousand thirteen” myself. I really dislike the “noughts” thing though for the previous decade. I get it, doesn’t mean I have to like how it sounds.
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### Author:  [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2013, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350/5 "2013-10-04T14:17:19Z")
Post-2009, I’ve got the twenty-x route, on the basis that twenty is quicker to say than two thousand!
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2013, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350/6 "2013-10-04T14:18:28Z")
This is the first year I feel comfortable saying “twenty \_\_\_\_\_\_.” “Twenty-oh-one” and “twenty-eleven” just feel too contrived. And “twenty-twelve” sounds like Baba Wawa.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2013, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350/7 "2013-10-04T14:19:00Z")
> [@Macca26](#):
>
> I was always taught that putting “and” in the middle of a number string denoted a decimal mark. Saying “Two thousand and thirteen” would register to me as a price - $2000.13
I’ve heard some people say they were taught that way, and that just seems weird to me. I have never heard anyone say “two thousand and thirteen” to mean anything but “2013.” “$2000.13” would be “two thousand dollars and thirteen cents.” (And, yes, I’m American.) Is it really common anywhere to say numbers in this manner? Do you say “5.32” as “five and thirty two”?
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### Author:  [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2013, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350/8 "2013-10-04T14:58:41Z")
I’m a two thousand thirteen sort of ranger. I think it’s because I think of twenty thirteen as being almost a quarter after eight in the evening (8:13 p.m.).
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### Author:  [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2013, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350/9 "2013-10-04T15:09:15Z")
So I guess nobody uses the ‘‘and.’’
I usually say two thousand thirteen myself.
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### Author:  [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2013, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350/10 "2013-10-04T15:09:43Z")
> [@sandra\_nz](#):
>
> Post-2009, I’ve got the twenty-x route, on the basis that twenty is quicker to say than two thousand!
This is my story, too. Before 2010 it sounded clumsy to say, for instance, twenty-oh-eight.
If you promise not to rat on me, I’ll report that my wife has trouble acknowledging the 2000’s at all. This is 1913 to her!
And as long as I’m bitching I’ll say that anybody referring to 9/11 as “nine-one-one” sounds ignorant – or worse.
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### Author:  [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2013, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350/11 "2013-10-04T15:15:16Z")
After 2001 (which I pronounced like the movie), I immediately switched to “twenty-oh-two” and have never looked back. It’s more efficient.
Sticking in an unnecessary “and” sounds vaguely British and old-timey to me. Like “four and twenty black birds.”
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### Author:  [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2013, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350/12 "2013-10-04T15:15:44Z")
I’ve spent the last however many years, living in London, being indoctrinated with the mantra ‘London Twenty Twelve’ for the Olympics. I can’t possibly say it any other way now, totally brainwashed.
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### Author:  [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2013, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350/13 "2013-10-04T15:16:10Z")
> [@Macca26](#):
>
> I was always taught that putting “and” in the middle of a number string denoted a decimal mark. Saying “Two thousand and thirteen” would register to me as a price - $2000.13
If you think that is really a rule, you are going to have problems communicating with a lot of the rest of the English speaking world. As **Martini Enfield** points out, British and Australian, and probably most other English speaking peoples (I don’t know about Canadians) _never_ use forms like “two thousand thirteen” to refer to the number 2013, but always put in the “and”.
Also, like **pulykamell** , I cannot recall ever hearing someone, American or otherwise, use something of the form “two thousand and thirteen” to mean 2000.13, or, if they did, I most certainly misunderstood them. Although I am British born, I think my American English is pretty good.
Personally, as a British person, I would generally call the _year_ “twenty thirteen” (unless I was deliberately trying to sound sententious), and the _number_, “two thousand and thirteen” (which I would write as “2,013”). However, I am aware that the standard, idiomatic American way to say the number is “two thousand thirteen”.
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### Author:  [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2013, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350/14 "2013-10-04T15:18:24Z")
> [@EmilyG](#):
>
> So I guess nobody uses the ‘‘and.’’
>
> I usually say two thousand thirteen myself.
Well, Brits would, if it wasn’t for the Olympics brainwashing. I was ‘two thousand **and** one’ for years.
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### Author:  [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2013, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350/15 "2013-10-04T15:19:18Z")
I’ve been saying “twenty-” since 2010, when saying the whole year. But even before that, in usages where for the old century we would have said just the last digits, I said “oh-.”
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### Author:  [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2013, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350/16 "2013-10-04T15:23:28Z")
I use twenty-thirteen.
Anyone who had said one thousand nine hundred (and) thirteen would have been shot.
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### Author:  [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350/17 "2013-10-04T15:25:54Z")
> [@Zeldar](#):
>
> …
>
> And as long as I’m bitching I’ll say that anybody referring to 9/11 as “nine-one-one” sounds ignorant – or worse.
I hate that too.
> [@SanVito](#):
>
> Well, Brits would, if it wasn’t for the Olympics brainwashing. I was ‘two thousand **and** one’ for years.
I actually say two thousand and one as well.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2013, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350/18 "2013-10-04T15:31:13Z")
Twenny thirteen. I went with “B”.
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### Author:  [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2013, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350/19 "2013-10-04T15:33:13Z")
_Missed edit window:_
Why would anyone (American or otherwise) think that the “proper” way to say the _year_ is “two thousand [and] thirteen”? Surely nobody, unless deliberately trying to sound very pompous, ever called 1970 (for instance) “one thousand nine hundred [and] seventy”. The 21st century only differed, in any relevant respect, from most other centuries during its first nine years, when saying “twenty five” for (e.g.) 2005 would have been misleading, and “twenty oh-five” would have sounded odd (I think the **y** ending of “twenty” is the problem, because “nineteen oh-five” seems just fine). Now we are past that problem, it seems reasonable to revert to the normal, well established convention for pronouncing (post first millennium) year names.
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-2013/670350/20 "2013-10-04T15:38:13Z")
Two thousand AND thirteen.
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