TWO THOUSAND AND NINE
or:
TWENTY 'OH' NINE
It always seems that at the beginning of a century, people pronounce the year in full, like they did in 1900. It was at first pronounced ONE THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED. Why did they switch? They were saying eighteen ninety nine just the previous year? It kept going as ONE THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED AND ONE and so on until about 1910 when people must have gotten tired and started shortening it to NINETEEN TEN, at least according to my grandmother when I queried her about it years ago. It took about a decade before it switched over. Once people changed the syntax, even 1900 became NINETEEN HUNDRED in later writings and speech.
The same thing is happening with 2000. People are mostly pronouncing it in full right now. Will people ever switch from TWO THOUSAND AND TEN to TWENTY TEN next year? If not, when will it change over, when it becomes a mouthful at TWO THOUSAND AND TWENTY ONE?
![Cool 8)](./images/smilies/icon_cool.gif)