Stating years

[lafrancaise]

No doubt this was asked a few years ago but for what reason did we go from 1999 nineteen ninety-nine to 2000 two thousand and not twenty hundred and who decided on changing? I hope you can help as a lot of my pupils ask me.

[juliacornwal]

Well I guess for the reason that it's the way our language works. I mean we don't say 'nine hundred, ten hundred', do we, we say 'one thousand'. By the time we get to 2010 perhaps we'll start saying twenty-ten etc., but it's new and we'll have to wait and see.

[lafrancaise]

Thank you for your answer julia, but in 1900 we said nineteen hundred didn't we? In 1901 we said nineteen hundred and one.... so why change to two thousand?

[Whickerman]

I happily say two thousand, but point blank refuse to say 'The Year 2000'... And when 2010 comes it'll be twenty ten.

[Llamatron]

It's a hell of a lot quicker to say 'nineteen oh one' than it is to say 'one thousand nine hundred and one'.
And 'two thousand' flows better than 'twenty hundred'.

I think we opt for whatever is easiest to say.

[chakka35]

It's very simple: 'twenty hundred' is not English.

What was more important at the time, though quite comical, was the colossal amount of money, time and energy the world spent in celebrating the millennium a year early! Compared to that, 'twenty hundred' is a minor solecism.

[lafrancaise]

Thanks for all your answers but I still don't figure out the reason of the change. In the year 1000 it was ten hundred ...

[mibn2cweus]

"Never increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything" ~ William of Ockham

When Bilbo turned 111 years old he celebrated his �one-hundred and eleventieth� birthday. How you say it is a matter of style but as long as the meaning is preserved and communicable, say it how ever you like and dam the reprisals.

[Bellringer]

You're a teacher??
It is the way we count. After nine comes ten. After ninety-nine comes one hundred.
After nine hundred and ninety-nine- comes one thousand. After nineteen thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine comes two thousand. After nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine comes ten thousand.
I do hope you don't teach maths.

[reinganum]

I don't know; I fully expected people to start saying 'twenty-oh-one' in 2001 but for some reason 'two-thousand-and-one' prevailed. I note, however, that now we are reaching the next decade, people in general (and the broadcasters and politicians are setting the lead) are beginning to revert to 'twenty-ten', "the twenty-twelve Olympics" etc. etc.

Incidentally, a century ago the 'oh' was often omitted; people referring to, for example, "nineteen-six" for 1906. I remember my great-aunt referring to years in this way.

[lafrancaise]

Thank you reanginum for being the one who understands what I'm on about... so it's going to change is it???
As for Bellringer you haven't ... What happened after the year 1899 (eighteen ninety ninety nine)? it was nineteen hundred wasn't it? So why after nineteen ninety-nine was it two thousand and not twenty hundred? or at least the next year; twenty oh one??????????

[chakka35]

I am not surprised that Bellringer doesn't understand your question; it's a question that makes no sense. He/she has, nevertheless, given a throughly logical summary of the way the language is used.
For reinganum to point out that we often say 'twenty-ten' and so on does not help. That is merely a convenient way some people adopt to express the digits themselves.
It is no justification or excuse for calling 2000 "twenty hundred", which, as I said before, is not English.

[Gromit]

Not an answer to your question, but further proof of strange english usage. Have you ever noticed how when verbally describing a number, a lot of people describe the number zero as a letter 'O'. Take the following bus numbers:

200 = TWO HUNDRED
209 = TWO, OH, NINE (not two zero nine)
210 = TWO , TEN or TWO, ONE, OH
219 = TWO, NINETEEN
246 = TWO, FOUR, SIX
250 = TWO, FIFTY

There doesn't seem to be a set logic to how people say numbers other than they break them down to more memorable smaller numbers (and using 'OH').

[Octavius]

Media and common British vernacular?

It is used to present the ethos of the time.

1901. Nineteen-oh-one sounds like a long time ago.

2000. Two-thousand-sounds like the calendar has been around for a long while

2012. twenty-twelve sounds hip, trendy and futuristic, although they could equally say two-thousand-and-twelve which would sound like an old number rather than a forthcoming year.

[Gromit]

Arthur C Clark wrote the novel 2010 which is pronounced as Two Thousand and Ten. We will of course be calling it Twenty Ten in 3 years time.