# What year can we start saying Twenty instead of Two Thousand? **URL:** \ **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:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/41 "2020-04-20T15:14:58Z")
Great idea to resurrect this, and fun to see it in… Twenty Twenty! I’m assuming people will either be saying “The Twenties” for the 2020’s and switch to calling the 1920’s “The Nineteen Twenties”… or they might keep saying the 2020’s then the 2030’s.\* Same issue with the phrase “The turn of the century”. For almost all my life we used that phrase to denote 1899-1900. Suddenly, we had to delineate, and say “At the turn of the Twentieth Century.” \*Someone younger than I will have to bump this thread in the year “Two-Oh-Three-Oh”… …or more commonly “The Year of the Time Travelers”, but we are not allowed to speak of that yet. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/42 "2020-04-20T16:12:18Z")
I use “twenty” for 2010 and later. I’d use it for 2001-2009 if people didn’t look at me like I’m a freak when I do. We say “nineteen oh five” not “nine hundred and five” so why not “twenty oh five”? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/43 "2020-04-20T17:55:05Z")
> [@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. 😛 \*\* How wrong they were… ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/44 "2020-04-21T05:34:48Z")
Just the other day, I was talking with someone and mentioned something from back in twelve, the year I got my current dog. Of course it meant 2012… who has a hundred and eight year-old dog? I remember people just using the last two digits all the way through the sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties. It’s time to drop the 20, y’all! ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/45 "2020-04-21T17:14:32Z")
Not that I write a lot of checks, but why can’t they print a little “20” on the date line now like they used to have a “19”? I think it’s safe to assume that checks printed now will not be used in 80 years. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134/46 "2020-04-21T18:39:21Z")
Saying just “the '20s” for the 1920s is obsolete and has been for a while now. **Digs** in post #41 is right. Now if you mean the 1920s you have to say the nineteen part aloud. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-can-we-start-saying-twenty-instead-of-two-thousand/153134.md?page=2)