# What year is it? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 29, 2011, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223 "2011-10-29T20:47:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223/1 "2011-10-29T20:47:15Z")
How do you pronounce the name of this year? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223/2 "2011-10-29T20:48:38Z")
Twenty-eleven. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223/3 "2011-10-29T21:00:17Z")
20-11. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223/4 "2011-10-29T21:20:10Z")
Two thousand and eleven. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223/5 "2011-10-29T21:23:45Z")
Two thousand 'n eleven. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223/6 "2011-10-29T21:51:53Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Twenty-eleven. Yup. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223/7 "2011-10-29T21:57:51Z")
Twenty-eleven. Two thousand through two thousand nine, then twenty-xx until twenty-one hundred. Not that I’ll live long enough to refer to the by-then-current year in that way. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223/8 "2011-10-29T22:06:51Z")
Not only do I say “Twenty-eleven”, I also try to remind myself to pronounce the years 2001 through 2009 as “Twenty-(whatever),” on the basis that very few people actually say one-thousand-nine-hundred-oh-three for 1903 (for instance). I will admit “Twenty-hundred” sounds weird (though “Nineteen hundred” doesn’t, for some reason), so that’s still “Two thousand.” ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223/9 "2011-10-29T22:37:58Z")
20 11. Of course. Because we never said nineteen hundred eleventh. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223/10 "2011-10-29T22:42:32Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > 20 11. Of course. Because we never said nineteen hundred eleventh. If you say so. Personally, I wasn’t alive back then. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223/11 "2011-10-29T22:46:03Z")
Another for “two thousand eleven”. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223/12 "2011-10-29T22:58:02Z")
Eleven. We never used to say the century back in the 1900s - why do it now? ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223/13 "2011-10-29T23:08:45Z")
Two thousand eleven, but for some reason 2012 is twenty twelve, and 2013 is twenty thirteen, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223/14 "2011-10-29T23:08:53Z")
I always say (and most often hear it said) two-thousand-eleven. If I have $2011 in my wallet I don’t say I have twenty-eleven dollars! Twenty-eleven just sounds funny to me. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223/15 "2011-10-29T23:59:28Z")
> [@Hanna](#): > > I always say (and most often hear it said) two-thousand-eleven. If I have $2011 in my wallet I don’t say I have twenty-eleven dollars! Twenty-eleven just sounds funny to me. “Twenty eleven” follows the convention of the 20th century; “nineteen seventy” rather than “one thousand nine hundred seventy”. Saying “two thousand eleven” is needlessly cumbersome, and sounds old-timey, like it’s a hair’s breadth away from “The Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Eleven”. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223/16 "2011-10-30T00:42:40Z")
Two thousand and eleven. “Eleven” is such a jumble of a word, it seems to flow better that way around, for me. I have used “Two Thousand And” for every year of this century up till now, but next year will be “Twenty Twelve” and I expect I will use that for all other years in my future. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223/17 "2011-10-30T01:04:57Z")
“Two thousand eleven.” But I don’t vote in public polls. Hearing “twenty eleven” makes me want to bash someone over the head with a furled umbrella. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223/18 "2011-10-30T01:09:35Z")
Twenty eleven, because it’s more economical. I didn’t say ‘one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine.’ ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223/19 "2011-10-30T01:11:20Z")
> [@jabiru](#): > > I didn’t say ‘one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine.’ In Thai, the years are said exactly like that. It must be hell to be a Thai historian. ---
**Author:** ![Molotok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Molotok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Molotok)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223/20 "2011-10-30T01:17:00Z")
> [@Sternvogel](#): > > Twenty-eleven. > > Two thousand through two thousand nine, then twenty-xx until twenty-one hundred. Not that I’ll live long enough to refer to the by-then-current year in that way. Well, not with _that_ attitude! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/601223.md?page=2)