Sunday, January 10, 2010

Hello Two-Thousand Ten

Welcome to the new year 2010 which, as far as I'm concerned, should be pronounced two thousand ten.  I have chosen to reject the "twenty ten" moniker because it just doesn't seem right to follow that type of phrasing until that little digit behind the 2 has a value meaning starting with 2100 and on.  Sure that will be after my lifetime but I'm ok with that, really.

It doesn't take much effort to say two thousand ten and saying twenty ten just feels like the person is just too lazy to add that one extra syllable.

I know Wikipedia has it's own two cents worth to say on the topic stating "Among experts and the general public, there is a debate as to how specific years of the 21st century should be pronounced in English. The year 2010 is pronounced either "twenty ten" or "two thousand (and) ten".[1]




The sequel to the film  2001: A Space Odyssey was called 2010 and though it was released December 1984, I don't recall ever hearing anyone since then refer to it as twenty ten.  If someone were to ask me if I ever saw the movie Twenty Ten, I would reply that there never was one called that but there was one with a similar name called Two Thousand Ten titled as 2010.  


My point in writing this isn't so much as to persuade anyone who reads it to adopt my view as much as it is more just to communicate my perspective.  I mean if you choose to use twenty ten then I won't say I don't know you anymore.  But if you do choose to use two thousand ten, then I think we'll just be closer friends that share a common idea who choose not to acknowledge anyone when they pronounce the year incorrectly.  We may or may not have a motivating desire to correct them every time but in our minds we'll know what they really mean.



Reference

  1. ^ Siegel, Robert (2009-11-16). "How Do You Say 2010?"All Things Considered (National Public Radio). Retrieved 2009-11-16.