13 replies to this topic

[Vlad Soare]

Hello,

 

I have a question for those of you who are native English speakers.

How do you pronounce the years after 2000? Do you follow the same rule as for the previous centuries? I mean, 2017 is "twenty seventeen", 2004 is "twenty oh four", and so on? Or do you pronounce them like regular numerals, i.e. "two thousand seventeen", "two thousand four", etc.?

 

Thank you.

 

[raynkar]

Hello,
 
I have a question for those of you who are native English speakers.
How do you pronounce the years after 2000? Do you follow the same rule as for the previous centuries? I mean, 2017 is "twenty seventeen", 2004 is "twenty oh four", and so on? Or do you pronounce them like regular numerals, i.e. "two thousand seventeen", "two thousand four", etc.?
 
Thank you.

We pronounce them in two ways in the UK.

We say ‘twenty oh four’ as you said above, but also say ‘two thousand AND four’
So would also say twenty nineteen or two thousand and nineteen

I put the ‘AND’ in capitals as in the UK we would say two thousand and four as that’s how we pronounce numbers. Americans don’t use the ‘AND’ and would just say two thousand four.

But, there is a problem that makes things more complex
There seems to be a growing number of British people who have watched so much American TV that they use an American way of talking!!
This use of American English is growing and I find it very annoying.

[Mondygeek]

From 2000 it's pronounced two thousand and one, two thousand and two etc. There's 2 ways from 2010 you can either say twenty ten, twenty eleven etc or two thousand and and ten, two thousand and eleven. Next year will be easy for you it'll just be twenty twenty, then twenty twenty one

[Vlad Soare]

I put the ‘AND’ in capitals as in the UK we would say two thousand and four as that’s how we pronounce numbers. Americans don’t use the ‘AND’ and would just say two thousand four.

 
Thanks for the tip. I didn't know that. I've always wondered whether I should use the "and" or not, as I've heard both versions used interchangeably. 
My English is a mixture of British and American. I've learned British English in school, but as time went by I was exposed to a lot of American English. I do, however, try to keep as close to British as possible, so I'm always grateful when such differences are pointed out to me.
 
 

But, there is a problem that makes things more complex
There seems to be a growing number of British people who have watched so much American TV that they use an American way of talking!!
This use of American English is growing and I find it very annoying.

I can imagine that.

Even I, despite not being British and having no personal interest in the British heritage, find some things annoying. For instance, the way Americans omit redundant adverbs - "sit" instead of "sit down", "stand" instead of "stand up", "throw" instead of "throw away", etc. Or the incorrect conditional form of "to be" - "if I was" instead of "if I were". So I can imagine how annoying it must be for you.

Edited by Vlad Soare, 09 April 2019 - 09:02 AM.

[stonekeeper]

I would actually say we do a mixture of both depending on what the year is.

 

"Nineteen eighty four" for example was said like that

 

"Two thousand and one " etc up to Ten IMO

 

Now it's twenty nineteen

[PURPLE_2L_LX]

Two Thousand and Nineteen for me.

[Mondygeek]

Two Thousand and Nineteen for me.

That's just your weekly income! Haha

[PURPLE_2L_LX]

I wouldnt get out of bed for that 

 

Maybe i would get out of bed if i actually went to bed more often though? 

[Mondygeek]

I was going to say... To get out of bed you need to get in it first!

[Rekusu]

"the incorrect conditional form of "to be""

 

As I consider myself to be a reasonably educated native speaker of English, I have little to no idea of the a grammatical explanation for English usage.

 

X years ago, when I went to Japan and managed to find work as a 'conversational teacher', and was learning Japanese (for the visa!) I learnt more about English grammar than I recalled from school days.  Fortunately, my conversational classes did not require any grammatical explanation.