|
ESL Forum:
Techniques and methods
in Language Teaching
Games, activities
and teaching ideas
Grammar and
Linguistics
Teaching material
Concerning
worksheets
Concerning
powerpoints
Concerning online
exercises
Make suggestions,
report errors
Ask for help
Message board
|
ESL forum >
Ask for help > What year do we live in?
What year do we live in?
|
silviamontra
|
What year do we live in?
|
|
Hi there,
could someone explain me why we say Shakespeare died in �sixteen-sixteen � (1616), but we say today is 19 January two thousand and ten not �twenty-ten � ?
Is there a reasonable explanation. My students asked me today, and I couldn �t provide one. Hope you can help.
Hugs to all. |
19 Jan 2010
|
|
|
|
Lana.
|
|
You can just as well say twenty-ten. It �s just people seem to have more repect and awe towards the 2000s and the 21st cebtury, so they say "two thousand". |
19 Jan 2010
|
|
|
Sonn
|
|
As far as I know the English used to say e.g. "sixteen hundred sixteen". Then there was no need to pronounce "hundred" and they shortened it, pronouncing only the numbers which were important . Now it is pronounced only in 1900, 1800 etc. (nineteen hundred, eighteen hundred) because if they say just "nineteen" it can be understand as 19.
I read that people started to say 2000 (two thousand) beacause it was an unusual year, a new millenium. The other reason is that a writer (I don �t rememer the name) wrote about 2000th as "two thousand and..." There was a similar topic here. Try to use search engine of the forum. |
19 Jan 2010
|
|
|
volga
|
You can say both "twenty ten" and "two thousand ten", but I heard on the news earlier this year that "two thousand ten" is used more frequently than "twenty ten". You see, the grand majority of people don �t consult grammar books to find out what �s right or wrong to say, they just say it however they feel like saying. ;O)
Cheers!
|
19 Jan 2010
|
|
|
silviamontra
|
|
Thanks for your answers. I definetely prefer two thousand and ten to twenty ten, chich sounds really odd to me.
Hugs |
19 Jan 2010
|
|
|
