30 December 2009

i'm just saying

I intend to say twenty-ten

and not two thousand ten
or the even worse two thousand and ten.

Anyone else?

Yes, I do think about these things. Because, you know, I might be called upon to offer my opinion to the world or the blogosphere. It's kateish.

And I still think the last decade ought to be called the oughts.

10 comments:

Maura said...

DEFINITELY twenty-ten.

Just had this conversation last night with friends who feel two thousand ten is the way to go. Just can't do it.

I've been calling the last decade the "ohs" - goes with the way we pronounced the years and just seems to roll off the tongue.

The Accidental Mommy said...

Now for the life of me I can't think of how I have been referring to the 2000's. I must have been saying two thousand nine, etc. But I like twenty- ten.
We sure did not go around saying nineteen thousand ninety nine!

Unknown said...

Hmm...not sure how I feel about that. Twenty-oh-nine, I DO NOT care for. Definitely prefer two-thousand-nine. And don't really have a reason. But maybe Twenty-ten (-eleven, -twelve, etc.) is OK. Maybe it's the "oh" in the middle that bothers me. Though it's what we say when shortening to two numbers. Hmm.... But I don't think we can keep saying two-thousand-whatever for a whole century.

Now, what really irritates me is saying, "oh-ten." I've been hearing it at work since October, when the new fiscal year started. We're so used to saying oh-seven, oh-eight, oh-nine...that some people haven't figured out it just plain TEN, not oh-ten. And now I'm hearing it on car commercials! "Check out the oh-ten models!" Ugh!

These are important things to ponder....

(Something changed in the comments, and I can no longer post using the "Name and URL" option. So, will have to use the Google account...which makes me appear as Allison, not Allison B. But it's still me.)

Annie said...

I am SO with you on the "oughts"....no idea how this coming year will roll off my lips... I just wish it were 1910. Of course, that wouldn't be so good for you in Russia...

kate said...

Interesting about the "oh" comments. I haven't heard any of the oh-eight, oh-nine sayings, Maura, so wouldn't even have thought of the oh's. I've only heard, and said the entire number, two thousand nine.

Allison, I never heard twenty-oh-nine either. That's odd sounding to me. I SHUDDER to think people are saying oh-ten. What?? I guess it *could* be two-oh-ten. But that's ridiculous. I think it's laziness and stupidity. And we all know how I feel about stupidity.

Since we were nineteen ninety-nine just a few short years ago, it only makes sense to me that now we will be twenty whatever.

And it saves a syllable.

The Accidental Mommy said...

Oops, my comment looks stupid! I meant, no one went around saying it was the year one thousand nine hundred ninety nine.
I think that's what I meant anyway. Blame public schools in Chicago if I messed it up again.....

julian said...

I am a (two thousand and ten) kind of girl.
I plan to write,
205+5 just to irritate people!!

Unknown said...

Kate, you probably don't hear as much American-English-media as most of us, lol! I've heard "twenty-oh-nine," which seriously grates on my nerves. But mostly, the "oh-nine" is used in terms of fiscal year (written FY09, so abbreviated as 09 and pronounced oh-nine) and car models ('09/oh-nine). Oh-ten, people just haven't stopped to think about.


Now, another thing I want to know is when are they going to start printing the 20___ on the date line of checks? They used to always print 19___, so you just had to fill in 2 digits, until the late '90s. We're a full decade into this century, and still they haven't gone back to printing those first 2 digits.

Suz said...

Yes, me too! I'm so glad to be able do drop the whole 200(1-9)!

And another topic of discussion has been, is 2010 the second decade and I say yes.

Lisa said...

On NPR yesterday someone asked a question about how to refer to the past decade and the "official" answer was "the oughts". So there you have it... if NPR says so, it must be true. ;-)