# What year can we start saying Twenty instead of Two Thousand?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 6, 2003, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134 "2003-02-06T04:41:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Alzarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alzarian)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2003, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/1 "2003-02-06T04:41:01Z")
Is there any rule to follow in the naming of years this century?
My gut tells me that 2010 would be the first year we would use the “Twenty-year” format instead of “Two Thousand-year” format, as it would become quicker and easier to say, though I don’t know if there is a hard and fast rule on this, or how long it will take the population to settle for this shortcut.
The years 2001-09 are equally long either way, but it seems the usage of “Two Thousand” is more common.
2000 = Two Thousand or Twenty Hundred or Twenty-oh-oh
2001 = Two Thousand One or Twenty-oh-one
2002 = Two Thousand Two or Twenty-oh-two
.
.
.
2010 = Two Thousand Ten or Twenty-ten
Does that work for everybody?
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2003, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/2 "2003-02-06T05:01:54Z")
I’ve heard “Twenty-oh-three” but “Two thousand and three” is definitely more common. I agree that the switch over will probably start in 2010 and be complete by 2020.
Haj
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### Author:  [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2003, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/3 "2003-02-06T05:06:32Z")
Well, going by last century, when it was 1910, I’d say you have a precedent. Although maybe it would be best the wait until 2020, when we’ll be able to see clearer. 😛
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### Author:  [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2003, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/4 "2003-02-06T05:10:11Z")
I think when there are two seperate numbers not seperated by a zero in the year (such as 2010 rather than 2009) then we will start to use “Twenty” as a prefix. It seems odd to say “twenty oh three” even if it has the same or less number of syllables as something like “twenty twenty five” because there are two numbers spoken when talking about it rather than talking about something with three numbers (from the added “oh”).
All IMHO, of course.
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### Author:  [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2003, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/5 "2003-02-06T06:51:41Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by kniz \*
> **Well, going by last century, when it was 1910, I’d say you have a precedent.**
I don’t know what they did in 1903, but I call it nineteen oh three, same as nineteen ten or nineteen fifty.
I’m starting with the twenty oh 3 this year. Who’s with me?
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### Author:  [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2003, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/6 "2003-02-06T06:55:45Z")
Tell the AP, UPI, Reuters, etc. to use it (oh-3) forthwith, and we’ll probably see a change before next fall arrives.
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### Author:  [@jb\_007clone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jb_007clone)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2003, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/7 "2003-02-06T06:56:27Z")
Yeah!!! I’m with you! Twenty-oh-three!!!
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### Author:  [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2003, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/8 "2003-02-06T06:57:35Z")
D’oh! Perhaps some \*non-\*print mediums, like MSNBC, FNC, [sup]shudder[/sup]CNN, etc.
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### Author:  [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2003, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/9 "2003-02-06T07:15:31Z")
aright! we have a movement
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### Author:  [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2003, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/10 "2003-02-06T08:41:33Z")
We can start **now!**
But not twenty-o-three. That just sounds lame.
Twenty- **aught** -three, it is. 😃
Some day you can set your grandkids on your knee and say, “Why, I remember the winter of 'aught-three like it was yesterday…”
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2003, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/11 "2003-02-06T08:51:41Z")
Hmm, it would be interesting to research how English-speaking people in the years 1901-1909 spoke the year. Nineteen-oh-one? Nineteen-one? Nineteen-aught-one?
Given the widespread aversion of copy editors and style manuals to using a digital year (e.g., 1901) at the beginning of a sentence, surely it wouldn’t be hard to find the year spelled out in words, especially in newspaper issues published near the beginning or the end of the year.
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### Author:  [@KenP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KenP)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2003, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/12 "2003-02-06T11:32:34Z")
I started at twenty-oh-one, and I’m still (pleasantly) surprised when I meet someone else who does likewise.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2003, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/13 "2003-02-06T11:48:15Z")
The problem lies (I think) with the significance of ‘two thousand’, which when expressed as “twenty hundred”, sounds much more awkward than “nineteen hundred”.
I can’t say whether that’s just because I haven’t had time to get used to the idea, but 1903 as “one thousand nine hundred and three” would simply never have worked in the same way that 2003 as “two thousand and three” does, so it’s not an exact comparison.
What did they do in 1003?
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### Author:  [@aahala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aahala)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2003, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/14 "2003-02-06T12:02:24Z")
I have no idea when the practice actually started last century, but by the late 50’s at least, if you asked someone when they were born, you would frequenctly hear “19 oh 4” or “19 aught 4”.
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2003, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/15 "2003-02-06T13:10:51Z")
I just throw caution to the y3k bug ad say oh-three or zero three.
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### Author:  [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2003, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/16 "2003-02-06T14:10:30Z")
“One thousand nine hundred” is much more unweildy than “two thousand”, so last century’s precedents do not apply. I think that we’ll keep saying “two thousand” through 2099.
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### Author:  [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2003, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/17 "2003-02-06T15:13:18Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by kniz \*
> \*\*Well, going by last century, when it was 1910, I’d say you have a precedent. Although maybe it would be best the wait until 2020, when we’ll be able to see clearer. 😛 \*\*
Ahh… finally we can say foresight is 2020. 😃
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### Author:  [@Skelji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skelji)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2003, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/18 "2003-02-06T16:53:50Z")
I’d just like to know when media people are going to stop referring to that time 3 years ago as “the year two thousand”, as in, “Back during the presidential elections of the year two thousand…”.
I don’t recall ever hearing anyone talk about “the year 1998”, for instance. 😃
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### Author:  [@JMorton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JMorton)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2018, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/19 "2018-04-18T17:32:24Z")
Checking in from fifteen years in the future: 2018. More people seem to be referring to 2008, for example, as “twenty-oh-eight”, now that the decade has ended. I still say “two-thousand-and-eight”.
I was five when this thread was started. Jesus.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2018, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/20 "2018-04-18T17:56:45Z")
Moved to IMHO. Note that this thread was started in Ought-Three.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
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