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).

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