Hi everyone!

 

I have a question: since last year we have started to say 2020 like twenty-twenty , but since when can we read years like that? Can we only do that from 2020? Because 1918 is said nineteen-eighteen...

 

I don�t quite understand what your question is. We generally read the first two digits as a 2-digit number (such as 19 or 20), then the remaining two digits as a two-digit number, unless it begins with 0, in which case we read that as "Oh", then the final digit.

Here are some examples:

1900   nineteen hundred

1901   nineteen oh one

1909   nineteen oh nine

1910   nineteen ten

1919   nineteen nineteen

1920   nineteen twenty  

1985   nineteen eighty five

2000   two thousand

2001   two thousand and one, or twenty oh one

2009   two thousand and nine, or twenty oh nine

2010   twenty ten (but two thousand and ten is fairly common, too)

2020   twenty twenty

2021   twenty twenty one

 

If that doesn�t answer your question, please try asking it in a slightly different way.

 

Bruce 

It�s an interesting question. Since 2000, there have been two camps in how to pronounce the year but since 2020 it�s just one camp. The global population has agreed that twenty whatever is much easier to say than two thousand and whatever. Besides, twenty whatever is a natural progression from nineteen whatever.

 

There is an interesting article here about it: https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2020/01/09/snapp-shots-at-last-can-we-pronounce-this-centurys-years-right/

 

Cheers

 

Jayho

Thanks to Jayho�s answer, I finally understand the question.

 

Up through 2009, I said two-thousand whatever, but in 2010, I started saying twenty ten, twenty eleven, etc. 

 

I think it was partly influenced by the book and movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, which has always been said two thousand one, or two thousand and one.

 

Bruce