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.

  • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
    141·
    1 day ago

    My brain hurts. I’ve just spent like 3 minutes stating how the “and” isn’t something I ever heard before. Then I said how it goes all the way to 2019. Then I remembered I don’t remember anyone calling it Two Thousand Nineteen. It’s Twenty Nineteen. But 2011 is Two Thousand Elevin, but I HAVE heard Twenty Elevin. And same with 2010.

    So now it becomes a matter of geolocation region preferences. Different people switched over at different times. And I am NOT about to go spend my time researching thousands of different data points of who says what and when.

    screams into a pillow

    • hope@lemmy.world
      20·
      24 hours ago

      People may have also switched some years retroactively. I definitely said two thousand ten back then, but would say twenty ten now.

        • burkybang@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          20 hours ago

          I say “twenty” for all of them now, like “twenty oh nine”. “twenty hundred” sounds weird now, but I guarantee eventually people will forget about ever calling them “two thousand and”.

    • ryathal
      72·
      24 hours ago

      If you want to be a bit pedantic the and is incorrect for a year. When you say a number the and should be to denote a decimal portion of a number. It’s generally not always used that way so context is often required to determine the intent.