Steve's Grammatical Observations: Twenty Ten or Two Thousand Ten?

[josh1422]

It's two THOUSAND and eleven

[MiniGeek31337]

JeremyJahns! Yay!

[jeflip942]

wow, a news clip from my hometown of Springfield Mo, that was unexpected ...

[SonofMrPeanut]

I tend to think in terms of syllables or the flow of the word. As far as the last decade was concerned, the "o" took way too much effort in comparison to two-thousand-whatever. With the extra zero gone, there's something rhythmic about twenty-ten that two-thousand ten just doesn't capture. That's the way I see it, and that's why I use it.

Beside that, I think memories of Sealab 2020/21 will affect that year.

[frazzymcgee]

Two thousand AND ten if you're using that one

[MiniGeek31337]

Actually, I live in Tokyo and I hear more and more the words of "first decate" when people talk about 2001 up to 2010, "seconde decate" starting at 2011 etcetera.

But concerning the year as a whole, I never heard anything else than "two thouthand and schtuff..."

[countps]

I think you'll find that two thousand is related more to futuristic themes than twenty... In fact, the usage of two thousand seemed to come about because people were trying to convey something that seemed far off in the future. Two thousand is simply larger than twenty and sounded more futuristic in the 50's.

[LindaDulcinea]

I don't know a single person that says "Twenty Ten"... thank god for that.

[cthomer5000]

I'm now amazed that I managed to go the whole decade without realizing we'd transitioned the way we were saying years, only to revert back as soon as Twenty-Ten hit. Really quite interesting. Great stuff man.

[tryggda]

Historically, twenty-xx was absolutely inevitable, following, as you correctly observed, the odd transitional 200x years. (But I am one of those who actually did sometimes say twenty-oh-two, etc. But never twenty-oh-oh, which sounds, um, naughty?)

And in fact in the early twentieth century (and toward the middle of the century among oldsters), the "aught" was common. i.e. Nineteen-aught nine, etc, was a slight affectation, but a very common one, especially among the well-educated.

[tryggda]

Historically, twenty-xx was absolutely inevitable, following, as you correctly observed, the odd transitional 200x years. (But I am one of those who actually did sometimes say twenty-oh-two, etc. But never twenty-oh-oh, which sounds, um, naughty?)

And in fact in the early twentieth century (and toward the middle of the century among oldsters), the "aught" was common. i.e. Nineteen-aught nine, etc, was a slight affectation, but a very common one, especially among the well-educated.

[0StrangeRover]

Your argument is compelling, but how does your plea for us to not be standardized line up with your fetish for 'correct' grammar? Hey, I'm a grammar nerd too, but we have to realize that 'proper' grammar is the fossilization of the speech of the ruling class. Good grammar carries prestige, while street grammar's prestige would be called 'cred' and would not be much help in getting an office job. Jus' sayin'.

[Plomomedia]

@0StrangeRover  you're absolutely right.

[lifeofanidiot]

@0StrangeRover It's only compelling because he has a four chord song in the background.

[naachgaana]

I think the first reference I heard to "twenty ten" was Bad Religion's song "ten [billion] in twenty ten". Of course, we didn't reach ten billion people, but I guess there's still some of the year left....

[paulhallart]

"twenty ten" is slang. ukanuseit if uwnana but look at these elitist snots who r tryin'2rule by the ghoul. some pyramid freak dictates their brains. it's two thousand ten. what's ur problem. it's faster2say it right this time. get over it.

[RuaridhHunter]

People in Scotland, well Britain all say two thousand and whatever but the news channels insist on twenty. It never happened until the subject of the Olympics was brought up. Fuckers. I really hate that. The twenty twelve Olympics. What a bunch of wankers.

[miliscatis]

I love Steve!!!!

[kingsolver99]

Here we are half way through the year and it hadn't occurred to me what to call it.

[Plomomedia]

@kingsolver99 I think it's safe to say now that Media did not unanimously decide to call it "twenty ten", and in any case it wasn't entirely in their hands, since they deal with all sectors of society. I may have been a little too paranoid about that part. I'm also happy to report that most people have gone back to saying "two thousand ten" (that was always my preference)

[devtape]

@Plomomedia In that case, what are you going to call 2011 and beyond? Because "two thousand eleven", "two thousand thirteen, fourteen, fifteen" etc. all sound too long.

Plus you do have the argument that we've been saying "nineteen x" before 2000, so it would only make sense that this would continue starting this decade rather then being forced to make the pronunciation longer and more clunky then it needs to be.

[Plomomedia]

@devtape i'm gonna call it "two mil eleven" "two mil twelve" "two mil fifteen" sounds nice doesnt it?

[devtape]

@Plomomedia Sounds uber-trendy (don't know how else to say it).

[Plomomedia]

@devtape trendy, yet it'll be a trend no one adopts.

[justwannahavfun19]

hahhahahahah you do have a good point!

Well.. in portuguese we use the exact translation of "two thousand and ten", so i'm kind of used to it... And even before, 1967 would be called "Nineteen hundred and sixty-seven" or just "sixty-seven" (if you're talking about the past)...so i don't think i wanna change. :)

[lunchboxboy]

The last clip seemed like the one discussing the most. Think about it, you think people will keep saying "two-thousand...thirty-four" or whatever? no, people are gonna start saying "twenty-thirty-four" just because of how much easier to say. eventually, people will start referring to 2001-2009 as the last guy in the clip did even though thats not what we did in the past.

[funkmastaalx8]

applause all around

[brnmbrns]

20-0-9 HAHAHAHA What a douche.

[antdude]

Who cares! Twenty ten is a lazy and faster way than to say two thousand ten.

[dsmontag]

Wait until 2110, and there will be no question. No one is going to say "two-thousand, one hundred and ten." Everyone will say twenty-one ten. Of course, none of us will be worried about it.

[Plomomedia]

i wouldnt be so sure...

if we wanted to we could keep saying two thousand... and in 100 years it would have morphed into something else... "two mil ten" is my vote.

[dsmontag]

Probably people will start using shorthand again, just using the last two digits to describe the the current century, and using the entire number to describe other centuries. Like, "Back in '64, I bought my first lint-powered spaceship, which was originally invented five hundred years ago in twenty-three sixteen."

[Plomomedia]

most likely, except for the lint-powered spaceship.

[mikeyfbi]

2:42 hahahahahahahahahahah i love it

[NineLeggedDog]

My roommate just taught me the difference between discrete and discreet. I had no idea.

[Plomomedia]

i just looked it up too.. i always spelled it discrete. then i realized that i was wrong. now i'm realizing that there are indeed two different spelling/meanings. thanks!

[StarTrekmanrulz]

Oh'Ten

[charliep1973]

20010?

[StarTrekmanrulz]

2010 (010)

Oh'10

[charliep1973]

Aaaaarghh!!!  This millennium didn't start in Y2K...

[nbonaparte1]

Decades have commonly been from 0 to 9. It's just as arbitrary as the date the calendar is based off of. It may not follow its own rules, precisely, but that's okay. how stupid does this sound: 1980 was in the 70s. It works, it's worked for the past 2 thousand years, and there's no need for pedantism.

[charliep1973]

I never mentioned decades! Be careful not to confuse the decades we name after the numbers in the year (Eighties, Nineties etc.), and the centuries and millennia we number consecutively.

"Eighties" - 1980 to 1989

198th decade - 1971 to 1980 (though nobody ever refers to decades that way)

20th Century - 1901 to 2000

2nd Millennium - 1001 to 2000

[aleciahh]

This made me think... reeeally hard.

I, myself, am a grammar nazi annnd I find your videos uber helpful in my quest for grammatical domination! =D

[TTWB94]

Nice, except you sound like a crazy ass liberal when talking about "the media".

[Plomomedia]

I AM a crazy ass liberal!

[StarTrekmanrulz]

Oh'Ten(written x-xx-010)

[chrisstratford]

yeah, i think i will stick with twenty ten.

but like we had our decades - the nineties, the eighties... what do we call the two decades between 2000 and 2019?

i hateeee the term 'the naughties' for 2000-2009.

deadmau5 rockkkssss

[jacobromu]

Though now we have te opportunity to say numbers correctly Nineteen ninety nine is stupid. One Thousand Nine Hundred Ninety Nine!