# What year is it? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 17, 2017, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868 "2017-08-17T12:44:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2017, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868/21 "2017-08-17T23:20:19Z")
my dad had a rifle called a thirty-aught-six, so he might have called it twenty-aught-six, and kept right on calling it twenty-aught-seventeen. Auto parts dealers often used the expression “oh-eight Camry” and I’ve heard some say “oh-twelve” and probably some oh-seventeen carryovers by inertia… ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868/22 "2017-08-18T01:42:56Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Twenty-seventeen, usually. But Y2K happened in the year Two Thousand. Go figure. > > Regards, > Shodan I most often use twenty-seventeen but sometimes for the Hell of it I’ll throw in a Y2K-seventeen just to see if the person I’m talking to is awake. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868/23 "2017-08-18T10:53:56Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I really think it only makes sense to use the first method up to 2010. At first, we say “two thousand” to celebrate the millennium, and a few years afterwards After that, we stick with it because “twenty-oh-number” sounds bad. Beyond that, I think it’s just habit, and thus a period of transition. By 2013, it makes sense to have finished the transition, since we’re past the true “one word” names for the lesser numbers. (Yes, we write thirteen, but it’s really thir-teen–i.e. 3+10.) > > I am surprised there are any hangers-on to using “two-thousand-number,” especially in 2017, which gives you an extra syllable. It’s just cumbersome at this point. And we’re going to transition back to normal at some point. This is it, exactly. When Y2K rolled around, “twenty-oh-oh” or “twenty hundred” sounded much more awkward than “two thousand”. Then the habit sticks. No-one refers to 1900 as “nineteen-oh-oh” because it was the thousand column tripping over that causes the issue. Nevertheless, for the last few years I’ve been training myself to switch to the more logical “twenty-oh-five” (or whatever) style, the only exception remains 2000. ---
**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:** [August 18, 2017, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868/24 "2017-08-18T13:20:47Z")
Somehow “twenty hundred” has never caught on, despite being flanked by nineteen hundred and twenty-one hundred. Must be that there’s already a word for tens of hundreds. In Tibetan calendar, this is the Female Fire Rooster year, which sounds way cooler than just numbers. (Female rooster? Well, there are transgender animals, I guess?) ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868/25 "2017-08-18T13:53:50Z")
both along with sometimes just the last two digits ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868/26 "2017-08-18T14:42:01Z")
I chose twenty-seventeen, although I actually _say_ “twenny-seventeen”. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868/27 "2017-08-18T16:36:24Z")
What year is it in Middle Earth? I suppose they are still in the Fourth Age, but who knows? ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868/28 "2017-08-18T17:20:13Z")
I’m going to keep saying two thousand until 2020, then I’m switching to twenty twenty. Twenty twenty two is going to be a weird one. Probably drop one of the twentys that year. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868/29 "2017-08-18T21:26:50Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I chose twenty-seventeen, although I actually _say_ “twenny-seventeen”. And I say twenisevnteen (four syllables, all run together). Or sometimes even twensemteen if I’m speaking fast. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2017, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868/30 "2017-08-18T23:23:30Z")
I call it “Harold”. Next year is gonna be Maude. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2017, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868/31 "2017-08-19T20:22:46Z")
I’ll also go with Heisei 29. ---
**Author:** ![Dancer\_Flight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dancer_flight/32/7601_2.png) [@Dancer\_Flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancer_Flight)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868/32 "2017-08-20T04:37:09Z")
Twenty Seventeen. Back in the Aughts, it was “two thousand and blank” or “two thousand, blank”. In retrospect and in a fit of hipsterness I refer to the recent past as “'aught blank,” as in, “I was hired back in 'aught Eight.” Much to the confusion of just about everyone. There is a constantly expanding English vocabulary and we keep losing some useful usages and distinctions… -DF ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868/33 "2017-08-20T04:42:16Z")
I didn’t say nineteen-hundred and ninety-seven, I’m not going to say two-thousand-seventeen. Besides, it’s 3183 YOLD. Anyone with sufficient slack could tell you that. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Dope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@The\_Dope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Dope)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868/34 "2017-08-20T04:48:20Z")
Two thousand nine was the last year it sounded normal to say “2 thousand” lo like BRing back the 90s! ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868/35 "2017-08-20T05:39:12Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I didn’t call it nineteen-hundred-ninety-five. I didn’t call it one-thousand-nine-hundred-ninety-five. With or without the archaic “and” between the hundreds and the tens. > > It was nineteen-ninety-five. It is twenty-seventeen. > > I’m sure not going to call it “two-thousand-seventeen” > > YMMV. Exactly this. 1956 was the year nineteen fifty six, not one thousand nine hundred and fifty six, with or without the “and”. Room 657 is “room six five seven”, not “room six hundred and fifty seven”. Ditto for an address like 4396 Maple Street. These numbers are labels, not really numeric quantities even if they’re nominally sequential. > [@Shodan](#): > > Twenty-seventeen, usually. But Y2K happened in the year Two Thousand. Go figure. I went, and I figured. It’s because 2000 is easiest to say that way, with the fewest syllables. It’s the same with a year like 1900. The language doesn’t have formal consistency, but it does have a kind of homespun logic. And perhaps the other thing motivating “the year two thousand” is the justifiable marvel at the fact that we have that length of recorded history and still haven’t managed to wipe ourselves off the face of the earth, though not for lack of trying. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![yellow\_sausage\_bandit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yellow_sausage_bandit/32/394_2.png) [@yellow\_sausage\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellow_sausage_bandit)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868/36 "2017-08-20T12:58:12Z")
tweeduizend zeventien ---
**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:** [August 20, 2017, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868/37 "2017-08-20T13:38:12Z")
I was going to say “two thousand and…” as long as possible, but there seemed to me that leading up to the teens there was a lot of assumption it ought to be “twenty…” so I decided after 2012, i.e. the actual -teen years, I would switch from one to the other to conform. Then nobody bloody went through with it, and I’m almost the only one I know who’s consistent. So annoying. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2017, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868/38 "2017-08-20T17:25:03Z")
You shouldn’t say two thousand and seventeen. The word and is used in mathematics to denote the start of a decimal. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868/39 "2017-08-21T14:11:32Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Room 657 is “room six five seven”, not “room six hundred and fifty seven”. Well, or “Six fifty-seven”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-year-is-it/793868.md?page=1)