How do you refer to the events of September 11, 2001?
Poll to follow
As for me, I always say “September eleventh.” The other options grate on the ears. “Nine eleven” is a Porsche model, and “Nine one one” is an emergency code.
In English, Nine Eleven. In Hebrew, *Hapigua Bateomim *(“the Twin Towers Terrorist Attack”).
Who says “nine one one”? That’s like saying “One Zero One Dalmatians.”
I heard my dad refer to it as “nine-one-one.” I agree it sounds really dumb.
September 11th. I’ve been complaining about the use of 9/11 for about nine years now. I don’t think there needs to be a catchy name for mass murder and it just grates on my ears. “Ground zero” bothers me, too.
I agree with Marley and HeyHomie.
For many years I resisted using the phase “Nine Eleven” as it it seemed to trivialize it somehow to me so I would say “September Eleventh” but eventually as time went on, I found myself using it too.
Yes, I’ve always thought the name “Ground Zero” was stupid.
prescriptivist rant warning
“Ground Zero” is the point on the Earth’s surface closest to an nuclear detonation. I assume some news reporter throught that it was a good choice of words to keep with the standard theme of media sensationalism. The problem is that it stuck.
Nine Eleven, which seems to be the term used in the NYC area, one of the three where the attacks occured.
It varies: sometimes nine eleven, and sometimes September 11th. Funny how we all agree that the year isn’t worth mentioning. I wonder if that will ever change?
It hasn’t for December 7.
That’s remembered as “Pearl Harbor,” not “December 7.” At least in the U.S. If you say something about December 7th and it’s understood to be in reference to the war, you might not have to say the words “Pearl Harbor,” but it’s generally not referred to as just a date. Even FDR used the year in his speech the next day.
The comparison was to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and there’s a certain amount of obviousness to the comparison - so I wouldn’t be so quick to blame a reporter - but I always felt that was kind of ridiculous on its face since the atomic bombings killed something like 50 times more people.
No, I’ve always heard references to “December 7” in the US. Not exclusively, I’ve heard “Pearl Harbor” too, but December 7’s out there.
For common parlance, “nine eleven,” sometimes with faintly sardonic tones.
“The ninth of November” to be a real smartass for a more worldly audience.
I heard President GWB say that on at least one occasion.
It’s nine-eleven. That’s what it’s called on the news. That’s why it’s spelled 9/11. September [the] 11[th] is a date. Nine-one-one is only used when people want to connect it with the phone number, due to the (probably mistaken) belief that the date was picked for that significance.
As for analogies with “Pearl Harbor”, I haven’t heard it called “World Trade Centers”, but I have heard it called “the World Trade Centers bombing”, despite the fact that I believe there were previous ones. I think that, if the new building is not called the WTC, the word will eventually refer to the attack, and 9/11 to the date.
Well, there you go.
And I think it is disrespectful. But then I think “Grandma” rather than “Grandmother” is disrespectful.
That’s why they make so many flavors of ice cream.
Nine eleven. It does sound trivial, and it’s the wrong date order for me, though other dates are never referred to by their numbers so it doesn’t sound too wrong.
None of the above. I say “eleventh of September”.