Two thousand seventeen VS twenty seventeen: What is the rule for year pronunciation?

Question

When I started learning English in junior school I was told that I had to pronounce the year 1997 nineteen ninety-seven and the year 2007 two thousand seven.

I've always followed the rule and pronounced the current year two thousand something, while refering to the last century with nineteen-something.

However I have, on several occasions, heard people talk about future years - e.g. 2050 in this tune's intro - and pronounce it twenty something.

This made me think it was ok to say, for instance, twenty seventeen when talking about the current year and I thought about it no more. Lately, in English class, I was talking to my teacher about a trip I did in 2012 and as he asked when, I answered: "That was in twenty twelve". And well by the look on his face I imediately corrected myself - "Oops, I mean two thousand twelve!" - and he was happy. But I did not get the occasion of asking him about the rule.

When will we stop refering to the current year as two thousand something and start saying twenty something?

Two thousand seventeen is already long and laborious to say, but in ten years? Two thousand twenty-seven is even worse. By then will we be "allowed" to say twenty twenty-seven? If not, when? Why not now? And what about the year 4456, do I have to say four thousand four hundreds fifty six or fourty-four fifty-six?

To make short, what is the rule here? I have no clue.

Thanks in advance!

P.S.: I also have no clue on how to hyphenate numbers but that's another story.

Answer 1

I am a native speaker with a careful ear. From my experience, I can tell you that when the millennium turned from 19xx to 20xx, we said "two thousand" plus the remainder throughout the aughts (01, 02, ..., 09). To use the "twenty" construction would have required acknowledging the zero digit: "twenty oh-eight, twenty-oh-nine" or "twenty-aught-seven" etc. Those were still heard a lot, however, as we were all new to the millennium and its numbering.

When it hit 2010, we started mostly saying "twenty-ten, twenty-eleven, twenty-twelve," etc., but it was not uncommon to hear "two thousand thirteen." This somewhat ambiguous pattern will likely continue throughout the teens.

You may be reasonably sure that once we hit the twenties, the "twenty-something" construction will overwhelm the "two thousand" one because "twenty" is still easier to say than "two thousand," and by that time it will also be more felicitous to use because "twenty twenty" has already made inroads into the general ear due to its appearance in popular culture as a standard of vision, etc.

Addendum

Just to add to an appreciation of the discomfort we feel with the awkwardness of "two thousand", consider the year 2000 itself. It's almost invariably referred to using the confection "the year 2000." Compare uses of "the year 2000" vs, say, uses of "the year 2012" in the Wikipedia articles on those years: "the year 2000" is referenced five times in the three-paragraph article (four in text, once in footnotes), while "the year 2012" in its article is given only once (all other times referring to that year simply as "2012").

Note that the millennial year was sometimes referred to as "Y2K"—although that term is blurred because Y2K could refer to the year itself or (more often, I think) to the turning of the millennium as a concept.

Now, given that we had primed our ears for "two thousand" by using "the year 2000," and that for thirty-odd years we had the example of the very popular Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which everyone I ever heard talk about the film referred to as Two Thousand One and not Twenty-Oh-One, it seems reasonable to suppose that these uses laid a "two thousand" groove from which it was somewhat difficult to extricate our tongues.

Note that I am not saying it was impossible: people still did use "twenty-oh" while the rest of us muddled along doggedly using "two thousand" until 2010 (when, again, not all of us switched). All I am saying is that the millennium shook up the way we pronounce years, and we are slowly returning to the old pattern, the way ripples in a pond slowly die out after a rock has been tossed in.

Order will be restored. Be patient.

Addendum

Last night I was watching a news program and heard the announcer refer to events that happened in "two thousand nine and twenty ten" ... which was interesting.

Answer 2

You can't easily establish how the year component of C21 dates is spoken by searching online, because hardly anyone would actually write, say, two thousand [and] sixteen or twenty sixteen. Note also that the [and] there is usually omitted by AmE speakers, and no-one includes it unless they explicitly articulated thousand (or nineteen hundred and sixteen for earlier centuries).

Personally I have no general preference as to whether I refer to the century component of current dates using twenty or two thousand. I use both, but I'm slightly more likely to use the longer form when I want to call attention to the fact that it's a date in the current century (i.e. - "recent, modern").

---

My guess (and it's no more than that) is that apart from honouring the same principle as I set out above, people are more likely to use the longer form for the first decade (two thousand and one, rather than twenty oh-one). The other relevant factor is if you often have to read dates aloud to co-workers in the office, clients on the phone, etc. In that case you'd probably tend to favour the shorter version.

---

But I seriously doubt any native speaker would particularly notice whether another native speaker reflected the same or a different preference to themselves. Just use whichever seems most natural to you, and don't get bogged down with thinking that just because you're not a native speaker, your opinion of what "sounds natural" doesn't count for much. It doesn't really matter anyway.

Answer 3

As a native American English speaker, both "two-thousand seventeen" and "twenty seventeen" are acceptable ways to say the year "2017". Generally, I consider "two-thousand seventeen" to be more formal and "twenty seventeen" to be more casual. As examples, you might hear "two-thousand seventeen" in a news broadcast, but use "twenty seventeen" in personal conversations.

The first decade of the 21st century rarely uses the "twenty something" form because of the ambiguity between phrases like "twenty seven" (2007) and "twenty-seven" (27). In rare occasions, the zero is pronounced as "oh" or "aught" to disambiguate ("twenty oh seven" or "twenty aught seven").

Answer 4

I'm not a native speaker but from grammar books I've learnt that with the years like 20xx we say two-thousand and xx and this goes up to 2100 - as twenty-one-hundred. However, nobody says that it is incorrect to say twenty xx

The and part may be dropped in AmE. So the way it works (as I know it):

• 2008 - two-thousand (and) eight
• 2067 - two-thousand (and) sixty-seven

but:

• 2101 - twenty-one-oh-one (as fixer commented)
• 2367 - twenty-three sixty-seven

With your examples:

• 2017 - two-thousand seventeen.
• 4456 - forty-four fifty-six

Answer 5

Wikipedia says:

There is a debate among experts and the general public on how to pronounce specific years of the 21st century in English. Regarding this, academics suggested that since former years such as 1805 and 1905 were commonly pronounced as "eighteen oh" or "nineteen oh" five, the year 2005 should naturally have been pronounced as "twenty oh-five". A less common variation would have been "twenty nought-five". Generally, the early years of the 21st century were pronounced as "two-thousand (and) five", with a change taking place in 2010, where pronunciations often shift between the early-year standard of "two-thousand and ten" and the common approach used in the late 20th century of "twenty-ten".

The Vancouver Olympics, which took place in 2010, was being officially referred to by Vancouver 2010 as "the twenty-ten Olympics". The latest timeframes for change are usually placed at 2020.

Charles Osgood, a long-time CBS news anchor (he hosted "CBS News Sunday Morning" from 1994 to 2016) pronounced all 21st century years as "twenty-something". I recall him making a statement about his preference on the program when the century changed.

Answer 6

I am a native (american) english speaker.

It is always correct to pronounce the year number the same way you would for other things. How would you pronounce $2017 or 2017 miles? That is always correct.

There are ways of pronouncing the year that would never be used for miles or dollars, but they are not more correct than the regular pronunciation of the number.

Answer 7

Conversationally: "Twenty-Seventeen." Definitely. I teach English to foreign-born immigrants and am researching grammar, spelling, pronunciation (including regional dialects) constantly for my students.

"Two-thousand-seventeen" is used when emphasis is placed on the year SPECIFICALLY for some inherent reason. Ex: "Two-thousand-seventeen was the year..." and then some remark emphasizing THAT PARTICULAR year to make a specific point about THAT time-period.

Answer 8

It will become awkward to use the two thousand approach in 2101. Because it will be eight syllables versus five syllables to say it the longer way; whereas, the difference between two thousand seventeen and twenty seventeen is only one syllable. As native speakers, it will feel ridiculous for us to speak the year using eight syllables.

As a native born American and English teacher, I still use the two thousand approach. From 2008 to 2017, I have been abroad, teaching in Asia, so I was not around native speakers to hear how people said the year. I naturally spoke two thousand ten, and so on, and didn't think much about it until I heard it spoken differently in a news video. I think twenty seventeen seems to fit well with a younger generation accustomed to efficiency and convenience. For someone like me, who likes to draw things out at length, I find two thousand seventeen has a much more pleasant sound.

Either way you say it, by 2101, you likely won't be hearing anyone say, "Wow, is it the year two thousand one hundred and one, already?"

Answer 9

British English native here. We only say two thousand and seventeen with the and being a requirement. Omitting that appears to be an American thing.

Saying it like twenty twelve is very rare and usually reserved for a specific event, and only if the year sounds good in said event's title (the obvious examples being major sporting events like the olympics)