How do you pronounce 2009?

too-fouzen-nine

missing the "two thousand nine" US sports announcer option.

twenty-aught-nine

US sports announcer option.

I don't think this is confined to sports announcers.

"year of the salsa shark"

but yeah I'm guessing 90% of people I talk to today would say "two thousannine"

I don't think this is confined to sports announcers.

true, the MTV awards are pretty bad for it too.

i literally do not know a single person who would NOT say "two-thousand nine" what the fuck?

britishes?

"Two double-oh nine"

tu fazzand en naahn mate

all the Canucks I know say two-thousand-and-nine

grandpa simpson says dickety oh nine

I think the better question is how do you pronounce 2010? It seems like the year when we should sober up and say "all right, we've had our fun with this two-thousand business" and start in with the "twenty-ten" for a new decade, but I can't see that happening en masse. Maybe it will happen in 2011, when the six syllables of "two-thousand eleven" will prove to be too much for everyone to handle.

Two thousand and nine, but I say it in the style of Iggy Pop singing "1969" - "It's two thousand and nine, baby!"

"nineteen eighty four"

Agree w the schef, what are the rest of you on?

i literally do not know a single person who would NOT say "two-thousand nine" what the fuck?

Well, I don't know a single person who would say two thousand nine so if nothing else this threads been educational to me. Feel free to ignore the 'and' in the options.

this willy-nilly use of unnecessary words is why the british empire collapsed

if someone wrote "Twenty Oh Nine" to mean 2009, I would probably suggest ban them. if they said it in real life, i would punch them in the neck.

My dad recently mentioned something about the next election happening in "twenty-oh-twelve".

two zero zero niner

em em aye ex

twenty-noughty-nine

"twenty-oh-twelve".

20012

wow, Obama longest serving president ever.

i really can't think of a logical reason why "two thousand and nine" would be more 'proper' than "two thousand nine"

Oh, I can think of specific times and people where the "and" would be used here, especially when groping for a year in the recent past ("I think that was ... two thousand and ... two thousand and three, maybe?"), but for casual statement of the current year/date it's definitely usually dropped here unless someone's trying to stress something or be formal. (just like we did through the end of the last century: "tonight we're gonna party like it's 19 and 99???")

I agree with J that 2010 will be an interesting split for people -- I guess a formal vs. informal one?

too thous 'n nein

all the Canucks I know say two-thousand-and-nine

I was going to say that "Twenty Oh Nine" sounds very much like Dr. Heuer would say on "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century". But they hardly ever mentioned the year. So instead I'm just going to say that this f***ing rocks...

I was taught in grade school that the "and" construction is the truly proper, formal one for numbers greater than 100, but that us lazy moderns have dropped it in casual speech. I guess at this point some of us have dropped it so thoroughly that now we wonder why it was ever there?

when the six syllables of "two-thousand eleven" will prove to be too much for everyone to handle.

I think that people will be prepared for it after four years of talking about 2007.

Do Americans drop/not use the "and" when talking about numbers as well as years? Like if you had 2009 bananas and for some reason needed to inform someone of this fact would you say "Gee I got two thousand nine bananas"?

I'll have to ask my wife when I get home.

xp 2007 is only five syllables, though, unless you're one of those people that adds the needless "and."

There's actually a news radio station in Chicago that has been using "twenty-oh" ever since the beginning of this decade.

MMIX

billy dods, my wtf wasn't directed at your poll question (i voted for second option ignoring the "and") but rather at this "only sportscasters talk like this" nonsense, sorry if it was confusing.

xp 2007 is only five syllables,

Yes, and we will be ready for the next step.

xpost ha I was taught in grade school that using "and" is improper, but wikipedia seems to think this is another one of those UK/US divides.

what I'm more interested in is when are people reger to years by their last 2 digits. Even when talking about the last century, I only get comfortable with the 2 digits thing around the 1930s

i say two thousand nine cos it sounds more hip that way, and i'm hip

xp Yeah, "back in '12" sounds even weirder than "back in '08."

"nine"

twenty-nine

two - thousand - nine

but yeah I'm guessing 90% of people I talk to today would say "two thousannine"

― nabisco, Wednesday, March 25, 2009 12:19 PM (1 hour ago)

otm

i am going to amalgamize all of your approaches and just call it "twat-nine" from here on out.

missing the "two thousand nine" US sports announcer option.

― Anthony, I am not an Alcoholic & Drunk (darraghmac), Wednesday, March 25, 2009 4:11 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is what i say.

two thousand and nine. This goes for everyone I've ever met in Canada (where I am now) and New Zealand (where I am from).

colonial lackeys

Two Thousand and Nine

"Two Thousand, Nine". "And" is used only at the decimal point.

Alternates:

• Two double-ought nine
• Two double-egg nine
• Two double-zero nine
• Two googly-eyes nine

double double-bubble 6-seen-from-above

two - thousand - nine

― battlestar elastica (get bent), Wednesday, March 25, 2009 12:23 PM (45 minutes ago)

^^^

I remember once when a college roommate wrote a check for $112 and under "Pay To," he put "One hundred and twelve dollars" and I thought to myself wtf, who taught you that wrongness?

huh? that's perfectly standard, innit?

I was taught "one hundred twelve," not "one hundred and twelve".

In the immortal words of cankles, ¯\(°_o)/¯

naw, the and goes between the full dollar stuff and the xx/100's, ie one hundred twelve and 33/100s

(xp) nah, in school they taught us to "and" those motherfuckers, and i'm pretty sure that's old-school standard. maybe it's a regional thing? i'm from upstate ny

i would write one hundred and twelve dollars--anyone who does otherwise doesn't understand our global economy

oh wait maybe i don't do that--i hardly ever write checks. i think i do this

the full dollar stuff and the xx/100's, ie one hundred twelve and 33/100s

whatever

I think propriety and written communication and checks and dollar figures are a whole other thing from casually saying what year it is (just for the record)

one hundred twelve dollars and 50/100 cents.

i think it's impt to save the "and" for the decimal point. makes it clearer.

ha, this totally reminds me that my rent is due soon.

Try and get with the English program ppls.

I think the same principle applies for whole numbers of three or more figures, whether they're years or amounts. No "and"s.

One million, two hundred fifteen thousand, five hundred forty-three dollars
The year two thousand ninety-seven

2009 = twenty and nine.

i literally do not know a single person who would NOT say "two-thousand nine" what the fuck?

― he sounded italian enough to give me something (the schef (adam schefter ha ha)), Wednesday, March 25, 2009 12:22 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

were any "two thousand and nine" sayers also saying "one thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine" ten years ago?

I think somebody rigged up this whole economic meltdown so in a couple of decades we can brag to kids and grandkids about surviving aught-nine.

were any "two thousand and nine" sayers also saying "one thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine" ten years ago?

I shouldn't think so. But we certainly weren't saying one thousand, nine hundred, ninety-nine".

h - e - double - hockey sticks

I love how after all this time ILX is still enjoying new wtf-crazy-Brits/Yanks flare-ups on an almost daily basis.

I think the same principle applies for whole numbers of three or more figures, whether they're years or amounts. No "and"s.

One million, two hundred fifteen thousand, five hundred forty-three dollars
The year two thousand ninety-seven

― WmC, Wednesday, March 25, 2009 2:28 PM (2 minutes ago)
idk, there's ways ppl say it in convo and there's the 'correct' ways of saying it. i was always taught to throw an 'and' after the hundreds place

three thousand, four hundred and fifty-six
ten million, four hundred and twelve thousand, six hundred and forty-two

shut it limey
xpost

it's not an american/limey thing so much as a low diction/high diction thing, and people who use high diction in everyday speech are a bunch of bloody wankers

I don't know if using "and" means low diction or high diction.

i think saying "two thousand and nine" versus "two thousand nine" is totally high diction/low diction

Maybe it's my rheumatiz, but I feel a 600-word nabisco post brewing.

yall can keep you conjunctions for your highfalutin fancy pants wall street checks, we're all too busy gettin up early to slop the pigs and whatnot in these parts

i think it's impt to save the "and" for the decimal point. makes it clearer.

― battlestar elastica (get bent), Wednesday, 25 March 2009 18:25 (13 minutes ago)

is a nice try

Seriously, British people, common or posh, don't tend to miss out the "and". Maybe some do with the years of this new century, but not with normal numbers. I'm trying to hear someone in my head say "Five hundred eighty three" and I just can't do it.

but wait in britain are you required to say "and" between kissing the right and left cheek of someone during a greeting is what i want to know

alba that's b/c y'all speek with high diction, yo

five hundred and eighty three
or
five hundred eighty and three

i know it's the former
but
why?

lol JJ

xpost n/a because you're american and you're fucking awesome

n/a, it's just arbitrary i'd think. some old fuck from like 1200 decided that the same way he decided the bookmark's hue is called "blue" and not "red"

or it was god's plan

tonight we're gonna party like it's two-thou-sand-and-uh-nine

five hundred and eighty three
or
five hundred eighty and three

i know it's the former
but
why?

Because two-digit numbers don't always follow a compound ten-multiple+single digit rule (ie. the teens)?

(You'd have five hundred ten and three for 513 in the latter construction, which would offend the word thirteen's feelings)

five hundred and three and eighty

Haha amazingly enough, WmC, I have not yet been moved to really care on this one

I was trying to think of how I'd formally designate non-year numbers, and it was actually conflicting -- I feel natural thinking "one hundred eight-four," but also natural thinking "eight thousand, nine hundred and thirty-three" (I think because once you've added thousands, the "and" feels like it's finishing a series)

from here on out im saying it by saying two and then making the corresponding facial expression to o_O and then saying nine

That's too bad! I meant to add that I was looking forward to it. "Someday a real rain will come and wash all the pedants off the streets..."
xpost

I didn't even realize it was possible to say two thousand nine. I always hear/say two thousand and nine. Hmmm. I'm trying to remember if we use both in Dutch and I don't know. hah

The classification of the "and" as high diction is weird to me because I feel like it's indicative of casual speech, something that people say inadvertently because the syllables sometimes flow together a little better when it's in there.

^^Maybe I'm thinking this because Americans (or at least I) omit it on our checks, which seems like formal written language. For instance, I write a rent check every month for "Nine hundred ninety-five dollars and 00/100 cents."

(Would a British person insert the "and" on a cheque?)

five hundred and eighty three
or
five hundred eighty and three

If it were a year, I'd say five eighty three.

I don't think it would even occur to my parents that you could omit the "and". I usually do cause it's one less word to write.

xpost

deuce double-naught neuf!

"two thousand nine and a half" vs. "two thousand and nine and a half"

Would a British person insert the "and" on a cheque?

Yes!

"One hundred and fourteen pounds and sixty-three pence only"

but the only is more curious.

I am unoffended by people using English differently round the world.

I once heard that the 'only' was to stop naughty people writing 'and another million pounds' at the end. Don't know how true that is, but it seems kind of reasonable.

I was taught the only was so that people couldn't then write " oh and another hundred pounds please" on the end. xpost!

I conducted a scientific experiment when I got home:

I asked my wife "quick! what year is it?" and she said "two thousand AND nine"!

BUT

I then asked her "how would you say the number 101" and she said "one hundred one".

Now I don't know what to think.

(she's American btw)

I asked my Colombian wife how she says 2009 but she just kept crying and gesturing towards the shackles

Wait, do Americans not add the "only"?

xpost K, it's definitely "one hundred and one" but I might say "two thousand nine".

I've been sort of making an effort to say twenty o nine. it's a bit snappier. We're going to have to make the shift eventually anyway. I don't want to be going around saying 'two thousand and seventeen' instead of twenty seventeen. i mean we weren't saying nineteen hundred and ninety nine 10 years ago.

TBH, it's more like "a hundred 'n' one". Like "Guns 'n' Roses'.

xpost Yeah "twenty oh nine" is just silly.

Wait, do Americans not add the "only"?

I usually write

Two thousand nine dollars and NO/100

but no "only".

Wait, do Americans not add the "only"?

xpost K, it's definitely "one hundred and one" but I might say "two thousand nine".

― Sundar, Wednesday, March 25, 2009 3:36 PM (2 minutes ago)

most ppl just draw a big line thru the rest of the field

Even if you avoided crayon and caught the least diligent bank employee on an off day, I do not think some "Fifty pounds and ninety-one pence and five-hundred pounds and four-thousand pounds and fifty-million pence only" effort would fly.

I sometimes use "exactly" instead of "only". Then I usually draw a line too. I am thorough in my vigilance.

For instance, I write a rent check every month for "Nine hundred ninety-five dollars and 00/100 cents."

Wait, this isn't true, it's "Nine hundred ninety-five and 00/100" and then it says DOLLARS next to the line.

I'm pretty sure fiddling with the wording of the amount constitutes a very small percentage of cheque fraud.

I was taught in grade school that the "and" construction is the truly proper, formal one for numbers greater than 100, but that us lazy moderns have dropped it in casual speech. I guess at this point some of us have dropped it so thoroughly that now we wonder why it was ever there?

― How can there be male ladybugs? (Laurel), Wednesday, March 25, 2009 4:42 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

tons of xposts, but i was specifically taught the opposite of this: that saying the AND was improper. i think ill never get past that, and thats OK w me.

^^^ this

I think I actually learnt/learned it both ways.

Weirdly I think they both scan okay because they can break down mentally as:

there are two thousand five hundred eighty-four students

or

there are two thousand (students), five hundred (students), and (also) eighty-four students

like the one with the "and" just sounds like a series -- there are 2000, 500, and 84

oh how I would shake anyone who said that second construction to me (complete with extra "students" and "also")

i would go beyond shake

Everlasting <3 for anyone who uses the second construction.

you'd put their face into a crustastun?

xp

you all get that the things in parens are like "implied," right?

2 x 10^3 + 5 x 10^2 + 8 x 10^1 + 4 x 10^0

and

because I think plenty of people would say "there are two thousand, five hundred, and eighty-four students," just because there are three segments to the spoken number, and the conjunction does separate them somewhat conveniently and announce when you're finishing

you all get that the things in parens are like "implied," right?

no i didn't

you all get that the things in parens are like "implied," right?

normally, it would only be implied to a person using the second construction that I would shake them

I got it, nabisco. I just thought it'd be classic if someone did that.

Just got my 14 yr old son to read out 2584 and you guessed it, he went for two thousand, five hundred and eight four. I will shake him later.

I'm not sure it's worth starting a thread for this so I'll just ask: Other Canadians, when/how do you use "s" and "z" suffixes? It occurred to me that while I'd definitely write "analyse" in any situation (as do the Royal Conservatory and U of T), "recognise" and "organise" seem a bit foreign. I might occasionally type "realise" in chat but probably not in formal writing. And "analyze" definitely doesn't seem wrong. There was a record store in Ottawa called "Organised Sound" but they were probably just trying to be Euro-hip.

"and eight four"??

er, eighty four. Finger trouble.

too much shaking can do that to you

Another vote for the and. To me and I would think most australians dropping the and is a very american thing.

Like saying "write me" which bugs me for some reason.

as opposed to what, "write to me"?

correct

"hi, i'm obtuse. please write to me."

I don't see why one is more correct than the other, but then again the other language I know is German and they are all about excising the word "to".

I was taught never to say "and" unless I was appending a decimal, and I am from the USA, although I did go to elementary school in one of the original 13th colonies so maybe we preserved the Olde Ways there.

this all stems from american kids counting "one thousand one, one thousand two..." and dropping the "and" while playing hide and go seek in order to gain a competitive edge.

Never learned or was told that putting an "and" in a number was correct. From my modern non-and perspective, the extra "and" seems redundant and potentially confusing. Like the check example - it was drilled into our heads as kids that the only "and" we write is between dollars and "x/100"s (cents). Since "and" is used to denote addition, saying "two thousand and eighty four" implies an adding activity that isn't necessary. Yes, the result is the same, but to me it implies that there are two separate groups (as in nabisco's students example) being combined, when they are all one group.

Most of the people I see write checks that say "only" or "exactly" at the end are of an older generation.

and while counting up to 5thousand 1 before being allowed to rush the quarterback in street football.
xp

Also, although I say "two thousand nine" for the year now, I noticed that I read "2010" as twenty-ten, without even thinking about it, which makes me think I'll switch next year.

Also I omit the "and" between the dollars and cents on a check, but that's because I write big and need to conserve space.

Wait, I think I'm confused. Is it Brits or Americans who omit the "and"? If it's Americans, my "original 13th colonies" "joke" totally crashed and burned and I'm really embarrassed now.

Americans omit the "and".

then there's the issue of whether you pronounce the number 3300 - "three thousand three hundred" or "thirty-three hundred" - that was another check-writing thing drilled into us as kids, if it's a four-digit dollar amount, it's "(number) hundred" as opposed to "(number) thousand, [number] hundred," which I'm sure was a saving space thing.

(Sundar: as of univerity, when we had to pick one or the other and stick with it, I use the S instead of the Z but I think to be pedantic about it some words are supposed to be only one or the other depending on whether they're originally Greek or Latin.)

see now im envisioning australians telling people "dont forget to write and me"

what a crazy world

Don't you forget about and me

bite to me

I was taught in grade school that using an "and" in numbers over 100 was utterly incorrect.

I think Mrs. Jensen said the and indicates a decimal point or something.

xpost
What about below 100.

Oh, what Jenny said.

How would you use an and in numbers below 100? 29 = twenty and nine?

She used to get right riled when we would say 150 as "one hundred and fifty"

Though being Americans we actually said "a hundred an' fifty"

20 and 9 = NO NO NO
9 and 20 = acceptable foppery

Without getting too boringly into it, I just want to note that "write me" isn't as strange as it might appear, because it's basically a reduction from "write me a letter" or similar, with the object of the verb "write" implied/omitted. (So it might scan like it's incorrectly using "me" as the object of "write," but there's an invisible object lurking after that making it correct.)

Also anyone who has a categorical problem with that "write me (an implied message)" may have some mental gymnastics upcoming re: "email me"

'Email me an email'?

If you're going to invent an invisible object you might as well say there's an invisible preposition lurking there, "write to me", making it correct. In fact, who knows how many invisible words there are lurking away there...

two thousand one: a space odyssey?

pretty sure that "and" is one of them xpost

is this really what you people want to be talking about in the 2009?

Anyway, British people use the 'and', but American people (mostly) don't. I'm fine with that.

What puzzles me, reading through this thread, is 'aught' - what is that?

8

I think Mrs. Jensen said the and indicates a decimal point or something.

― milk plasma (Jesse), Wednesday, March 25, 2009 5:19 PM (3 minutes ago)

mrs jensen = RONG

well basically yeah -- "an email message" is the implied invisible object of the verb "email," unless you're specifying the actual content. but the point's more that nobody (so far as I know) hears "email me" and thinks "how silly, I can't actually attach you to an email, they don't work that way"

xpost - oh man, we should probably not drift into this, but I don't think there's an invisible "to" in that construction -- I think it's coming much more firmly from the "write me a letter/message/email/whatever" direction. I'm sure there's another verb we do this to, somewhere, where there's like an understood/omitted arrangement of direct and indirect object

PS most of my thinking about the "and" indicates that we often just do it with long numbers (and the decimal place) to announce that we're freaking done -- e.g., I think the same person might coherently say both "three thousand four hundred and forty-two" and "three thousand four hundred forty-two and three eighths"

The "and" never precedes the last two digits in spoken monetary figures with cents, right? "Three thousand four hundred forty-two DOLLARS AND twenty-nine cents"

Jenny's teacher said the same thing!

Nabisco - I knew people from the north of England who said "give it me" instead of "give me it" and it always jarred with me and made me think "how silly, I can't actually give you to it, can I?".

And the Bible says "when two or more are gathered in the name of a decimal point...."

Yeah "write me" bugs me because its like someone says to me: "hey, write me" *Trayce writes the word "me" on a page*

Its a casual contraction, but it isnt clear. No one here says it that way.

you know what drives me crazy is when a british person calls you and instead of saying, "Hello, is this William?" they say "Hello, is that William?" RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

they're not where you are, que

If a British person phoned you and said "Hello, is this William?" it would mean that British was unsure of his own name, but thought that it might be William and was wondering if you could confirm it.

it is alarmingly logical that the telephone would confuse this oint

i'm not saying isn't more correct--

just saying

it's weird the first few times it happens

What puzzles me, reading through this thread, is 'aught' - what is that?

― Teh Movable Object (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Wednesday, March 25, 2009 4:43 PM (29 minutes ago)

I don't know if Que was serious or facetious when he said 8, but that ain't it.

aught
2   /ɔt/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [awt] Show IPA
–noun
a cipher (0); zero.
Also, ought.

Origin:
a naught, taken as an aught (cf. auger ). See naught

That's weird, I've never seen 'aught' before and I can't remember ever hearing that in any American films or TV programmes. Also, I don't think I've come across 'nought' spelt as 'naught' before.

Grandpa Simpson says "aught" pretty frequently.

I'll pay more attention to him in future.

Yeah he's always saying "aught four" and "dickety-six"

Oh well, since we're enjoying this latest charming round of US-vs-UK you-so-crazy battles (man, I've been missing out, been ignoring this one on the new answers because I didn't realise it might be one until the post count went over a hundred, like, a hundred and something, even)...

Goodness gracious and forsooth, these former colonies are crazy! *toc toc toc* By which I mean, "aught" used to be the opposite of "nought". Check yr Shakespeare, for one, or cf "Is there owt there?" "No, there's nowt".

(Hm, I think I may be lacking the conviction to turn this into a really good clusterfuck, but still, there we are)

They still say 'owt' and 'nowt' in the north (of England).

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

hahahaha well i think that is conclusive then

wow

nice

this isn't the sort of thing you troll-vote i guess

xxxxpost: damn straight

too close to call imo

omg

ha - I was enjoying reading the exclamations w/out seeing the results.

I think the better question is how do you pronounce 2010? It seems like the year when we should sober up and say "all right, we've had our fun with this two-thousand business" and start in with the "twenty-ten" for a new decade, but I can't see that happening en masse. Maybe it will happen in 2011, when the six syllables of "two-thousand eleven" will prove to be too much for everyone to handle.

― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Wednesday, March 25, 2009 4:29 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark

i think twenty-ten is exactly what will happen, and it will be en masse. there'll be a little residual "two thousand" here and there, maybe through 2012 or so, but pretty quick we're gonna be the twenties from here on out.

Agreed. The "oh" was what kept us saying two thousand nine.

I miss the simpler days of the 1900s.

what about 'two-ten'? esp. in more casual contexts