# How do you say 2010 (the year)?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [January 14, 2009, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189 "2009-01-14T02:48:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Obeseus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obeseus)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2009, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189/1 "2009-01-14T02:48:18Z")
Whenever I give the expiration of my credit card, I say, “July twenty-ten,” and I get, “Huh?” or, “Do you mean two-thousand ten?”
I call this year two-thousand nine, but why wouldn’t next year be twenty-ten? Wouldn’t the masses use the one with the least syllables? I’ve been told it should be ‘two-thousand ten’ due to the sequel to _2001: A Space Odyssey_.
So who’s with me? Are you going with ‘twenty-ten’ or ‘two-thousand ten’? If you’re not going to start with ‘twenty something’ next year, when will you? Twenty-twenty? If people tell me a movie dictates 2010, then I say a TV show can dictate 2020.
---
### Author:  [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2009, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189/2 "2009-01-14T02:57:49Z")
I’ll say two-thousand ten.
---
### Author:  [@The\_Batman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Batman)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2009, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189/3 "2009-01-14T03:04:58Z")
Two-thousand ten. Although, years that are past the teens I say the other way (ex: 2020-twenty twenty, 2063-twenty sixty three)
---
### Author:  [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2009, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189/4 "2009-01-14T03:05:05Z")
Twenty-Ten.
Or if I’m feeling particularly adventurous “_Em, Em, Ex._”
---
### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2009, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189/5 "2009-01-14T03:06:54Z")
I was thinking about this the other day. Starting next year, we can go back to saying “twenty-” because it will no longer be confusing. “Twenty-nine”: confusing, could be “29.” “Twenty-ten”: there is no numerical equivalent.
A strong vote for “twenty-ten,” to be followed by “twenty-eleven” and “twenty-twelve.”
---
### Author:  [@PopeJewish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PopeJewish)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2009, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189/6 "2009-01-14T03:10:51Z")
twenty-ten
we said nineteen-ten for 1910 (though I guess we said nineteen-oh-nine for 1909) so why not twenty-ten for 2010? I agree that twenty-oh-nine is a bit awkward (along with twenty-oh-nine. Or just twenty-eight/nine), so two-thousand-nine is a good substitute, but we normally break years into first two and last two numbers, and I’m all for starting that up again ASAP
---
### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2009, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189/7 "2009-01-14T03:11:22Z")
I say ‘twenty-ten’.
Logically, I think we should be saying ‘twenty-oh-nine’ for the current year, but most people I’ve heard say ‘two thousand nine’.
---
### Author:  [@gardentraveler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gardentraveler)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2009, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189/8 "2009-01-14T03:14:51Z")
Twenty-ten - we’ve been doing long-range planning (through about 2012) at work and everyone I’ve talked to says it this way.
---
### Author:  [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2009, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189/9 "2009-01-14T03:22:37Z")
Twenty-ten. That’s how we’ve been referring to it for budgeting and forecast purposes.
---
### Author:  [@fighting\_ignorant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fighting_ignorant)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189/10 "2009-01-14T03:49:19Z")
One of the dumbest people I ever worked with referred to it as “twenty oh ten”. Uhhh, no, dude.
---
### Author:  [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2009, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189/11 "2009-01-14T03:57:12Z")
Twenty-ten.
Even with the same number of syllables as Two Thousand Nine, Two Thousand Ten just seems cumbersome.
---
### Author:  [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2009, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189/12 "2009-01-14T03:59:02Z")
This year: Two Thousand Nine
Next Year: Twenty Ten
---
### Author:  [@Telcontar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telcontar)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2009, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189/13 "2009-01-14T04:02:10Z")
> [@fighting\_ignorant](#):
>
> One of the dumbest people I ever worked with referred to it as “twenty oh ten”. Uhhh, no, dude.
You can, however, refer to students graduating in 2010 as “oh tens” 🙂
---
### Author:  [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2009, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189/14 "2009-01-14T04:23:14Z")
People are strange in this respect.
Heard a reporter on the news the other day say “January 2”. That’s January two. That’s how she said it.:smack:
---
### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2009, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189/15 "2009-01-14T06:09:44Z")
> [@Tijuana\_Golds](#):
>
> Two-thousand ten. Although, years that are past the teens I say the other way (ex: 2020-twenty twenty, 2063-twenty sixty three)
Me too on both accounts.
---
### Author:  [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2009, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189/16 "2009-01-14T06:14:28Z")
I say twenty-ten.
---
### Author:  [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2009, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189/17 "2009-01-14T06:18:49Z")
_Twenty ten_ unless trying to be more formal-like for some reason. Saying the superfluous\* two thousand ten \*is like saying we are going to party like it is _nineteen hundrend and ninety nine_.
---
### Author:  [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2009, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189/18 "2009-01-14T06:20:23Z")
It will be twenty-ten, for a very simple reason. We love brevity, and it’s one less syllable to say it that way.
---
### Author:  [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2009, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189/19 "2009-01-14T06:29:50Z")
I figure as the year comes in there’ll be a bit of each.
“Two-thousand” certainly came more naturally than Twenty-Oh-Oh or such, and “Two-thousand-one” was the obvious successor. We’ve kept that up through the subsequent decade of similarly-numbered years (did we ever decide to call this the “Oh-Ohs” or the “Naughties”?).
“Two-thousand ten” follows pretty obviously from “Two-thousand nine” in the pattern we’ve been on since the end of the nineties. But eventually “Two-thousand-twenty-seven” is more cumbersome than “Twenty-twenty-seven”, and we’ll switch.
I bet, though, that from the point we switch, we’ll refer back to 2010 as “Twenty-ten”, since that’ll be the pattern we’re used to following, even if back in 2010 we were saying “Two-thousand-ten”.
I like **Trocisp** ’s suggestion myself. Ememex. Ememexeye. Ememex-aye-aye. … Ememeyel … ah, for the simpler times of emceeyemexsee-aye-aye.
---
### Author:  [@Art\_Rock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Art_Rock)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2009, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189/20 "2009-01-14T06:37:36Z")
I think the comparison with 19xx falls flat. Say Ninety ninety nine stands for ninety nine (hundred) and ninety nine. As it will never be twenty hundred, twenty ten does not make sense to me.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-2010-the-year/481189.md?page=2)