I realize that I may be about ten months late for this post to be considered topical in a “that’s what people are talking about at this moment in time” sense but it didn’t begin to bother me until a little while ago. It may not be that big a deal to anyone other than me but I still want to know what the pulse of the people is regarding the following question:
How do YOU pronounce the year 2010?
Do you say two thousand ten or do you say twenty ten?
Personally speaking, if I was still able to talk I would go with the twenty ten style of pronunciation. I didn’t say one thousand nine hundred and ninety seven when it was nineteen ninety seven but then again I also didn’t say twenty oh nine when it was two thousand nine either. I just think it makes more sense to go with twenty ten for the sake of keeping it consistent with the way we’ve pronounced it for the previous ninety decades or so prior to the last ten ought years.
How do you say 2010? Please vote the poll below and provide commentary if you so desire.
The Adventures of ALS Boy 
I *sooo* want to be the person that says, “twenty ten,” but alas, I am not, even though logic and convention dictate that to be the proper way (as confirmed by your blog post, the Huffington Post, and the good folks over at http://www.twentynot2000.com ). However, I never, ever, EVER hear anyone else say it the right way — probably due to the fact that the past decade of “two thousand, two thousand one, two thousand two…” etc. has put us all in bad habits.
On the few occasions where I’ve casually dropped a “twenty ten” in social situations, nearby conversations screeched to a halt, heads snapped in my direction from yards away, and even to myself I came off sounding like a complete d**che. So unfortunately, I’ll be sticking with “two thousand ten” for now. Maybe I’ll try again in twenty eleven.
ha ha tra. nobody ever shoots me a douchy look when i say it in my head 🙂
In your honor, Jas, I’ve resolved to say “twenty ten” from here on out. Douchy looks be damned!
I’m with Traci. I alternate between the two, but “two thousand ten” rolls out so much more naturally than “twenty ten.” I haven’t noticed any heads snapping as I say one versus the other, but maybe that’s because my natural southern drawl has lulled them to sleep already…
I really do miss the 90’s.
#1. “Tewnty-ten” is grammatically correct.
#2. We’re going to look like idiots if we’re pronouncing it “Two thousand-thirteen” in 2013
#3. None of us will live to see it, but I PROMISE you they’ll be making fun of us in 90 years at the way we doggedly stuck to “Two thousand ten.”
twenty ten…i miss the 70’s!!!
I also say 2 thousand 10 because when I use 20-10, nobody knows what I’m talking about and it requires a couple seconds of clarification and I usually end up saying: 20-10…you know, 2 thousand 10?
So I skip the clarification part and save a bit of time.
I wonder though, if it has to do with the phonetics of saying ‘twenty’ which has a sort of vowel-ish sounding ending, which makes it difficult to then pronounce something starting with another vowel.
like this: twenty-oh-one..is harder to say than two thousand one.
twenty-ten with a vowel sound followed by a hard ‘t’ is actually easier to pronounce. But next year twenty-eleven will be a little abrupt-ish with those two vowels bumping up against each other.
As a fellow Italian…I’d like to add my favourite year to pronounce in Italian: 1979 (millenovecentosetantanove) gotta LOVE that one!
Everything sounds better in Italian.
We say: 2000, 10
I have the curse of poor enunciation, so I have to repeat myself no matter what I say. unfortunately poll daddy won’t let us vote for more than one, and you didn’t give an “all of the above” option!
Oh ten.
twenty ten 🙂
Easier, shorter 😛 😛