Name that year!
Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 12:44AM So we’re a few days into the New Year and there’s no consensus on how to say what year we’re in.
Are you saying “twenty ten”? Or are you calling it “two thousand ten”?
Back in my English elementary school days, we had to learn important dates by heart. My class could recite in unison that William the Conqueror reigned from ten-eighty six to ten-eighty seven, and that his son William II (or William Rufus for his red hair), ruled from ten-eighty seven to eleven hundred.
We didn’t say “one thousand eighty six,” nor did we say “one thousand one hundred.”
During the last century (weren’t we just there?), we called the years “nineteen eighty nine,” and “nineteen ninety seven,” not “one thousand nine hundred and eighty nine,” and “one thousand nine hundred and ninety seven.”
But we called the last ten years “two thousand one, two thousand two,” etc. Did we collectively blow it and make a ten-year grammatical boo-boo?
Jeff Rubin, founder of National Punctuation Day, says there are no rules on how to say it. “No one has the authority, so pick a style and stick to it,” he says. He continues, “Two thousand ten sounds like a classier way to say it – it’s a bigger number. I can picture an aristocrat in New York, on Park Avenue or in her suite at the Waldorf Astoria, looking down at you through her bifocals, telling you ‘two thousand ten!’ Twenty ten is easier to say, but two thousand ten sounds nicer.”
Defying Rubin’s dictum that no one has the authority to tell us how to say it, a self-appointed expert has let loose his opinion on the question.
What do you think we should call it? Cast your vote in the Make a Comment area below.
Roberta Guise works with experts, small business owners and professionals who want to be extraordinarily visible and sharpen their marketing edge. A small business marketing consultant and speaker, she is the founder of San Francisco-based Guise Marketing & PR. If you'd like to know how to apply these concepts to your situation, call for a free 1/2 hour consultation. 415-979-0611. www.guisemarketing.com
Reader Comments (61)
I say "twenty ten." Why? It's faster to say. Fewer syllables. If I said "two thousand ten" it would be for emphasis, as in . . .
What!?! It's 2010 already? Holy moly, where is the century going?
Even so, I always said "two thousand nine" instead of "twenty oh nine" because it was faster to say, even though the same number of syllables.
I'm voting for 20-10. During the 1900's we didn't say one thousand nine hundred and fifty five we simply said 19-55. So why change now?
To show what a dolt I am, I've been saying "Oh-ten" as in "Oh-ten has to be better than oh-nine." Dumb, I know! So I'm voting for "twenty-ten" as it is pithy and seems to roll off the tongue.
Please don't add my email address to any group distribution. Thanks much.
20-10 for me; faster, but have to admit, easy to fall into the habit of saying two thousand ten after using that syntax for nine years!
I was saying nine, and writing 18 December 9.
So now I'm saying 10, as in: 8 January 10.
The year 1909 we call "nineteen-oh-nine," so I'll probably use "twenty-ten" most of the time.
I think we were thrown off by the year 2000. The year 1900 we call "nineteen hundred," but 2000 nobody called "twenty hundred." I wasn't around to know what people said in the year 1000, but it probably wasn't "ten hundred" -- millennial years are different.
Also, nobody called Arthur C. Clarke's "2001: A Space Odyssey" "twenty-oh-one."
So I think people will use both ways, but saying "twenty" plus the year number will eventually become the most popular.
Twenty ten - because, in 2101 we will most likely say twenty one one rather than two thousand one hundred one...
Twenty ten gets my vote, or for brevity why not MMX
Roberta,
You raise an interesting question. I've been calling it "twenty ten." (I guess that disqualifies me for the "snooty" category!)
Steve
"Twenty-Ten!" It was, after all, "nineteen-ninety-nine" 11 years ago. I just asked my Egyptian friend, Noha, her preference. (Egyptians know a thing or two about dates, after all.) She said it is just "Ten." She was born in "'57," not "1957."
Remember, however, the Rules for Writing Numbers: Spell out single-digit whole numbers. Use numerals for numbers greater than nine.
My preference, therefore, is 20-10.
Twenty Ten - is my vote! The Chinese Year of the Tiger.
Mike: that's a good idea of when to use each version.
Dick: we oops changed in 2000 to 2009 to using "thousand." Now as you suggest, we can go back to the way it was in the 1900s.
Rebecca: that's not so doltish. I'm finding when writing 2010 that I skip the first zero. Can I borrow your "oh"?
Gloria: I'll bet you'll have forgotten the habit in just a few days of repeating twenty ten....
Wendy: You'll be starting a whole new conversation!
Ken: What would Arthur C. Clarke call his magnum opus if he'd written it this year?
Lorna: You're planning to be around for a while, aren't you...?
Tooth Fairy: Using Roman numerals -- that's a classy approach. Also rolls off the tongue fast, although it makes the lips buzz.
Steve: The snooty category has reserved a special place just for you.
Tom: Thank goodness for contextual clues that we'll know which 10 we're talking about.
Linda: Could it be that we've entered the period of the Roaring Tens?
Twenty-ten
re: 2002 etc. twenty two would have been confusing, and twenty oh two the same number of syllables as two thousand two, so no need to go that route, plus we were probably all a bit fascinated by the two thousandness of it all. Now, I'm kind of used to the two thousand phraseology and find twenty ten kind of slangy... though it certainly makes sense connecting back to the nineteen this & that... so, no opinion, really. Sorry!
Twenty/Ten -- in the 1900's we did not say "One thousand, nine-hundred and ninety nine" :)
Eric: I hear you...slinging something slangy must be carefully thought through.
Rue: Are you saying we should say twenty forward slash ten?!
We are syllable adverse....hence the popularity
of Yoga....so people who twitter will like twenty-
ten. Those who have more classical tastes will
probably go with two thousand and ten. As a
proponent of "Slow foods", saying two thousand ten
in conversation may give my bread more time
to rise so that's my vote!
I like two thousand ten better because it's consistent with what we've been doing in previous years (i.e., two thousand nine). Nonetheless I'll probably use twenty ten because it's easier.
I say 1999 - because I'm in denial that I'm getting this old. (However, when forced, I use "twenty ten.)
Twenty-ten of course, just because I like the way it sounds.
Remembering to write it is another story.
Elayne
Two thousand ten does not sound nicer, it sounds like a bean counter solution to a linguistic issue. I have the authority to declare, Twenty Ten. Thus, it is! Now, the next issue is day-month-year format. Stop wasting keystrokes with month day comma year. Hence, today = 10 January 2010. That was Twenty Ten, by the way.
The term "two thousand ten" or "two thousand and ten" is what I hear everywhere.
Mindy,
I just knew that food would creep into the conversation! And so you're starting a "Slow Word" movement then....
Roberta
Ed,
Good luck switching!
Roberta
Scott,
I promise not to force you to dump your denial.
Roberta