How do you pronounce the current year? How will you pronounce next year? I’ve realized I’m going to have to shift gears somewhat, as for the past eight years I’ve been prefacing the current anno with “two thousand”, as in “two thousand nine”. But I suppose next year it will revert to “twenty-” as in “twenty-ten” (just as in the previous century all the years were prefaced with “nineteen-”). How about you?
Same. I doubt anyone would want to pronounce an extra syllable (or metric foot … ?)
Same as the OP. I’ve been looking forward to saying “twenty” as the prefix/preface ever since 1999 ended–it’s felt weird saying “two thousand [and].”
But lately I’ve been wondering if the majority will revert to the “twenty” preface–it’s seems like the official pronunciation for the 2012 movie is “two thousand and twelve,” and I was starting to think that people were going to maintain the “two thousand [and]” preface for another decade or so.
It’s early days yet in the poll, but I’m encouraged to see that the “twenty” preface is currently in a commanding lead.
I put “something else” because I say “two thousand nine” AND “twenty ten.”
EDIT: D’oh, I just saw that on the poll. I r failure. :smack:
Voted (3). I probably would have pronounced the “two-thousand-and…” in both years, but local advertising for the Football World Cup has burned twenty-ten into my head…
Two thousand nine, twenty-ten.
I’ve accidentally said “Oh-ten” a few times though, like when I am asked for my credit card expiration date. “Yes, it’s O [looks at card]… ten… um, 2010.”
Two thousand and nine
Two thousand and ten
two thousand, nine, two thousand ten - just as if I were pronouncing the numebrs in any other context. People saying the [and] actually makes me twitch. Funny that; I’m not normally a picky person, but that just bugs me.
We’re going to have a hard time at work. I’m a Periodicals librarian and half of our work related conversations are about magazines and such, as in “We have to start weeding the '08s today”, pronounced “oh eights”. We’re getting the last of the oh nines and we’ve started to get… tens? oh tens? Both awful.
When I mention past years of this decade I say “o- eight” or whatever. I guess I’d pronounce this year “two-thousand nine” while we’re still in it and “o-nine” once it’s over. Next ten years will be “twenty-10, 11”, etc. and I will refer to them in the same way when speaking in past tense. Once we get to the 20’s, past tense will go back to the last two digits.
It should have been the fourth option this past decade, but I compromised to the third.
It’s my opinion that we should retain the “two thousand” prefix for the next three years; in 2013 we can start with the “twenty” prefix. I have no rational reason for this, it just feels right.
I feel similar although my abitrary cutoff is 2020. Two thousand eighteen, two thousand nineteen, twenty-twenty.
Charles Osgood on CBS Sunday Morning always refers to the date as “…Twenty Oh Nine” and it clangs off my ear every week. Dunno why; perhaps it’s because we spent a few years referring to The Year 2000 (either approaching with dread, or as the current year), and it became natural to just append the current year.
I almost feel the same way, but I have a reason. It’s syllabification. Two thousand ten has the same number of syllables as 2009, so why should 'I change? Unfortunately, it breaks down on 2011, but either version sounds wrong to my ears. But every time I’ve read about the Mayan calendar thing, I’ve read it as two thousand twelve.
Me too.
I almost said #3, as I say “two thousand nine” and plan to say “twenty ten” most of the time, but I also plan to say “two thousand ten” from time to time, as gravity demands.
Two thousand nine
Twenty ten
Two thousand eleven. Twenty eleven just grates.
Twelve through nineteen can go either way.
But from twenty twenty on out it will be twenty whatever.
eta: Assuming we make it past 2012…
So now the poll is even between people who say “twenty ten” (52) and “two thousand [and] ten” (45 + 7)
ETA: whoops, add another 4 for the odd people who say “twenty oh nine / twenty ten”. But still pretty close to even!
I say two thousand nine and next year I’ll probably say twenty-ten. But who knows what I’ll do