I voted “Two-thousand-eleven” but actually I meant “Two thousand AND eleven”
Twenny-eleven. (The second T in “twenty” is silent, of course, unless I’m affecting a British or European type of accent.)
ETA: in fact really, it’s pronounced closer to “twunny” to nearly rhyme with “runny”.
Yeah, this one could really come back to bite you if it were on the record.
I say two thousand eleven.
For some reason twenty eleven just doesn’t sound right. Nineteen eleven is ok and twenty one eleven sounds ok, but not twenty eleven.
Kinda of like if you are counting hundred dollar bills, it would be “eighteen hundred, nineteen hundred, two thousand, twenty one hunderd, etc.” Twenty hundred doesn’t work.
Definitely Two-Thousand Eleven, it just sounds a lot better, and that one extra syllable is worth the better flow. That said, I do think the Twenty prefix works, though still not as well as the full one, with some years, like 2020s (alliteration is awesome), so the extra syllable may not be worth it then, and thereafter it may stick even if I think it’s not as nice with the 2030s, but meh.
And the comparison to the 1900s, is misguided silly. The equivalent of Two-Thousand Eleven wouldn’t be Ninteen-Hundred Eleven, but One-Thousand Nine-Hundred Eleven. That is, one is the short form for four-digit numbers and the other is the long form. And this is exactly why Twenty Eleven doesn’t work because no one says Twenty-Hundred, it’s always Two Thousand. If you don’t buy that, imagine you have $2011, would you say you have Twenty-Hundred Eleven Dollars or Two-Thousand Eleven Dollars.
Also, I strongly dislike the usage of “and” as in Two-Thousdand and Eleven. It was acceptable for the 00s, as in Two-Thousdand and Three for 2003, since the tens digit is zero, so it sort of fills the same spot of “O” when saying Nineteen-O-Three for 1903. I don’t use it, but I understand, especially with the convension of refering in shorthand to 2003 as O-Three, and Two-Thousand-O-Three just sounds dumb. However, for any year after 2009, inserting “and” is almost as bad as the whole Twenty thing. STOP THAT!
Twenteleven, or twenteleventy for Hobbits.
We refer to years constantly at work and twenty-eleven has revealed itself to be the most popular, least clunky way to say it.
Some of it’s a dialect thing. Two-thousand-and-eleven is very, very common here in the UK. Two-thousand-eleven, to my ears, sounds a bit like a toddler talking or someone using pidgen English.
What you’re used to sounds normal; everything else sounds weird.
Twenty Eleven Anno Domini
Twenty-Eleven, and I’m a bit surprised the poll is going the other way.
I knew I was in the minority last decade when I said “Twenty-Oh-Six” and so forth, but I figured by 2010 people would generally move away from the “Two Thousand And” construction. It’s just unnecessary extra syllables.
About half the time I say two thousand 'n eleven, and half the time I say 23.
I just use what I hear most often, and that is 20 11.
I’ll say 2K11. I borrowed that style from a popular series of sports video games.
I have no firm preference in the teens and oughts, and don’t think one is righter or wronger. So both, either, depending… until it’s 2020. Then I’ll be firmly in the “twenty-x” camp.
For now, it just depends what my brain spits out first. But “two-thousand and twenty” sounds ridiculously awkward compared to “twenty-twenty.” I’m looking forward to the next decade!
Better safe than sorry!
Two thousand and eleven.
Either, depending on what rolls off my tongue at a given moment. Twenty-Eleven more often, but far from exclusively.
I’m fine with either. I think I probably say two-thousand eleven more often than not. Twenty-eleven is good too.
20-11, just as I said 19-11.
And now I can say things like, “Why, I 'member the blizzard back in ought 8. . . .” Or, “In my day, we wouldn’t think of rewardin’ 'im. Back in '87, we just wouldda killed the sumbitch.”
I’ll say these more and with an increasingly scratchy voice as time marches on.