Tell HN: My New Site, How to Say 2010

Interesting being made to think about this. I took a logical approach - not always the best idea when it comes to language. I'd say World War 1 was between "nineteen fourteen and nineteen eighteen" so "twenty ten" fits that model.

Well, someone has a strong opinion: http://www.twentynot2000.com/

It's so cute how you english speaking fellas have all these short ways of saying numbers. In Russian it would always be "Two Thousand Ten".

Personally, I think that since the question is at least raised, it's not all that clear with the answer, no matter who wins the vote. I also think that one shouldn't refer to the way year 1806 or any of the past years are pronounced. To me anything 20xx sounds weird when pronounced with "twenty", probably because the word just does not fit in this shorthand model. And I think a lot of people feel this way.

I think it's interesting that you can start saying years in the form of twenty ten at 2010, but there are other year forms that we still can't use yet. We used to say things like "Back in '86, I saw my first movie" but that form won't sound natural (to me at least) until we get to year 2021.

I was thinking of evangelizing "twenty ten-one" through "twenty ten-nine" for the next decade. Now's the opportunity for the ideosyncratic "teens" to be deprecated. (See chapter 8.2 of Outliers.)

For 2001 through 2009, I said "oh one", "oh two", etc. Now, with 2010, I can't say "oh ten", because it doesn't sound right.

The next best choice is "twenty ten", which is much more verbose.

If you're a Bad Religion fan then there's not much to think about. I'm always reminded of the song "Ten in 2010" when I hear the new date. Luckily we're not there yet!

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Ten+In+2010+LP+Version/...

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/badreligion/tenin2010.html

We've had two stories about the pronunciation "2010" today. I don't think it's that big of a deal, really. What works will stick. We'll find out soon enough.

1910 I would say nineteen ten, because one-thousand nine-hundred ten is much longer. But two-thousand ten is manageably short. If the year were 2100, I'd say twenty-one hundred, and if it were 2110, I'd say twenty-one ten.

But I say two-thousand ten for 2010.

New Option: "Say It However You Goddamn Like"

I used to say Two thousand nine, but I'll be saying twenty-ten for the same reason I used to say nineteen ninety nine.