Throughout my life, I’ve always heard people refer to the early 21st century years as “two thousand and X”. For example, they pronounced 2001 as “two thousand and one”. In my experience, during the mid-2010s there seemed to be a shift in the way people said it, and the first time I heard someone say it differently was in 2016, where they pronounced it as “twenty sixteen”.

Most people I’ve heard pronounced the late-2010s years as “two thousand and X”, although the pronunciation “twenty X” had started to catch on fast. By the year 2020, almost nobody used the “two thousand and X” pronunciation, except for very old people I knew. For example, most people would pronounce 2024 as “twenty twenty-four” and not “two thousand and twenty-four”.

My question is: what year is the cutoff date for pronouncing the early 21st century years as “two thousand and X?” I’ve always heard people say it that way prior to 2016, I’ve never heard someone pronounce, say, 2007 as “twenty oh seven”.

I hope I was able to properly articulate what I’m trying to say.

  • stinerman [Ohio]English
    45•1 month ago

    For me it was

    2000: Two thousand

    2001: Two thousand one (or less formally “oh one”)

    2009: Two thousand nine (“oh nine”)

    2010: Twenty ten

    And from there on. I think this is because of the amount of syllables. That’s why we switch to “twenty” instead of “two thousand”.

    • @[email protected]
      18•1 month ago

      You’re on to something but I doubt it’s the syllables. Rather it seems about phonetic ambiguity.

      “twentynine” could mean both 29 and 2009, so it’s better to use “twothousandandnine” for the latter. “twentyten” cannot be interpreted as 30, only as 2010.

      • stinerman [Ohio]English
        6•1 month ago

        You can do “2009” as “twenty oh 9”, but that feels kinda awkward. “Two thousand nine” has the same number of syllables (4). “Twenty ten” is 3. “Two thousand ten” is 4.

        Even “1900” is “nineteen hundred” (4) vs “one thousand nine hundred” (6).

        ETA: I’m the class of “Oh two” rather than “zero two” because the former is one less syllable.

    • @[email protected]English
      3•1 month ago

      I personally say “o one” “o two” etc. all the way up to “o nine” After that it just seems weird to say “ten” or “eleven” instead of “twenty ten”

      Even referring to 1910 as “ten” seems weird and wrong, though. In my mind, it doesn’t make sense to leave the nineteen off until the 40s. For example, saying: “Back in forty-five” sounds right, but “Back in thirty-five” sounds wrong to me for some reason.