I decided to spell out the year as “twenty-ten” on my calendar because it looked right typographically. Little did I know then that the pronunciation of “2010” was such a controversy! According to this piece the other day on NPR, “In 45 days, there will be a mob at Times Square counting down. But what do we call the year that kicks in when the ball comes down? The four digits — 2,0,1,0 — are not in dispute, but how we say them evidently is.” It goes on to ask many supposed experts the correct pronunciation, but there doesn’t seem to be an agreement. So what expert should we decide to listen to? Last night I listened to the BBC World on the radio, and I noticed the readers all said “twenty-ten.” I’ll be keeping my ears open for what everyone else is saying…
funny you should mention it; my husband and i were just talking about how it’s finally twenty-ten! that ‘thousand’ thing these last ten years was kinda bumming us out and saying twenty-o-nine, etc. just didn’t sound right either. fun topic!
It’s very interesting because for the last century everyone was saying nineteen-ninety-six, nineteen-eighty-two…but never nineteen hundred and eighty-two ever! I find it funny that there is such a controversy over saying the simplest twenty-ten which seems to be the most reasonable way to me! Thanks for posting about this topic. I am interested to see what evolves with the issue as well.