"Two thousand..." or "Twenty..."?

[Eric Cheung]

The way I've always thought about, since I was taught about the "and" thing in sixth grade math class, was that it was analagous to ending a sentence with "and" or a preposition or something. It implies that there's something to follow it. In your example of two quantities there has to be a reason for there to be two quantities. That reason is usually that they represent two different things (two thousand apples and eight oranges), or because it's a mixed number (two thousand and eight tenths).

Since the year two thousand eight represents two thousand eight of one thing (years since 1 C.E.), I don't understand the logic in separating them into two groups of numbers.

That's odd. The post to which I was referring is down below. It's logged as four minutes after mine.

 

[Cicero]

Two thousand and eight is an appropriate way of stating the quantity represented by the symbols 2008, but is not an appropriate way to pronounce the symbols when so written.

Think of it this way: you can count the quantity as two quantities, one of two thousand and one of eight, or as a single quantity of two thousand eight. 2008 eight represents the latter count, and, as such, should be stated as a single quantity without an "and."

You can call the year Two Thousand and Eight, but 2008 is Two Thousand Eight.

 

[trekkerguy]

I've heard both argument and I will be saying "twenty oh nine" etc.

 

[Cicero]

I think, btw, that the tendency to state the year in terms of thousands comes from our increased public familiarity with large numbers. When confronted with a number in the thousands, we're likely to read it as X Thousand Blah Blah if there is a zero in the hundreds column, and as X-y Blah Blah if another numeral is there. We've carried this tendency over into reading the calendar, where such a propensity didn't exist a thousand years ago, the only other time this was an issue.

 

[cultcross]

That's odd. The post to which I was referring is down below. It's logged as four minutes after mine.

The boards having one of it's occasional temporal glitches. It happens when they change something...

 

[Cicero]

That's odd. The post to which I was referring is down below. It's logged as four minutes after mine.

The boards having one of it's occasional temporal glitches. It happens when they change something...

No, it's my fault.

 

[TGTheodore]

I don't care. I still can't get over the millions of idiots who believed 2000 was the first year of the new century and millenium.

--Ted

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ I still have arguments with people about that.

As for pronouncing the year, it's all about what rolls trippingly off the tongue. It will be "two thousand" up until 2009, then it will swing either way from 2010-2012, then most people will be saying "twenty" beginning with 2013.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

two thousand and eight would be 2000.8 (which is a computer dating system, so it could be August 2000).

What a bizarre way of looking at it. I've never heard a decimal described by 'and'. That number is two thousand point eight. Otherwise, you're opening endless fields of confusion.
I don't know enough about higher-level maths to know if its mathematically sound or not, but certainly for daily use, you can't tell me if someone hears 'two thousand and eight' they'd think 2000.8. They'd think 2008. It's certainly the standard way of pronouncing the latter here, its not uncommon to hear the sort of people who care about stuff like this moan about the American habit of leaving out words
When discussing years we may well leave out the 'and' as its slurred to almost nothing, but for describing the quantity 2008 we'd certainly put it in.

I was told in 2nd grade that using and was technically wrong, so I got myself out of the habit back then.

 

[cultcross]

^ You're the second person who mentioned learning this in grade school. I assume this is why saying 'one hundred fifty' or similar sounds so American to British ears - you're taught from a young age that it's wrong to say 'and', we're taught its grammatical to say 'and'. Hence the discrepancy. It doesn't really make a huge difference to the universe which you say, but the idea that 'and' implies a decimal fraction is brand new to me - I've never seen that usage. Vulgar fractions, yes - "one hundred and fifty and two tenths" but not decimal - "one hundred and fifty point two"

 

[Searider Falcon]

two thousand and eight would be 2000.8 (which is a computer dating system, so it could be August 2000).

What a bizarre way of looking at it. I've never heard a decimal described by 'and'. That number is two thousand point eight. Otherwise, you're opening endless fields of confusion.
I don't know enough about higher-level maths to know if its mathematically sound or not, but certainly for daily use, you can't tell me if someone hears 'two thousand and eight' they'd think 2000.8. They'd think 2008. It's certainly the standard way of pronouncing the latter here, its not uncommon to hear the sort of people who care about stuff like this moan about the American habit of leaving out words
When discussing years we may well leave out the 'and' as its slurred to almost nothing, but for describing the quantity 2008 we'd certainly put it in.

I was told in 2nd grade that using and was technically wrong, so I got myself out of the habit back then.

It was pounded into our heads in elementary school, too.

That said, context is key. If someone says "two thousand and eight" I think I can figure out whether someone means the year 2008 or the number 2000.8 based on the conversation, and I'm not particularly inclined to correct most people in a regular conversation if I know what they meant.

Furthermore, I seem to remember that while and=decimal in terms of pronouncing numbers, you would actually say "two thousand and eight tenths"...or the more common "two thousand point eight" (which is what I normally hear, tbh).

 

[Alidar Jarok]

^ You're the second person who mentioned learning this in grade school. I assume this is why saying 'one hundred fifty' or similar sounds so American to British ears - you're taught from a young age that it's wrong to say 'and', we're taught its grammatical to say 'and'. Hence the discrepancy. It doesn't really make a huge difference to the universe which you say, but the idea that 'and' implies a decimal fraction is brand new to me - I've never seen that usage. Vulgar fractions, yes - "one hundred and fifty and two tenths" but not decimal - "one hundred and fifty point two"

People in America do say one hundred and fifty, but it sounds uneducated when I hear it. Generally, they would say one hundred fifty point two because they're lazy. It's supposed to be spoken as one hundred fifty and two tenths regardless of whether or not it's written as 150 2/10 or 150.2

 

[Tiberius Jim]

I'll admit that I'm pretty much wrong when I say "one hundred and fifty", for instance when talking about money (the amount being $150) I think "and" does denote a decimal point. If you write a check to someone for $150.75 you would write out "One hundred fifty and 75/100"

 

[Cicero]

^ You're the second person who mentioned learning this in grade school. I assume this is why saying 'one hundred fifty' or similar sounds so American to British ears - you're taught from a young age that it's wrong to say 'and', we're taught its grammatical to say 'and'. Hence the discrepancy. It doesn't really make a huge difference to the universe which you say, but the idea that 'and' implies a decimal fraction is brand new to me - I've never seen that usage. Vulgar fractions, yes - "one hundred and fifty and two tenths" but not decimal - "one hundred and fifty point two"

People in America do say one hundred and fifty, but it sounds uneducated when I hear it. Generally, they would say one hundred fifty point two because they're lazy. It's supposed to be spoken as one hundred fifty and two tenths regardless of whether or not it's written as 150 2/10 or 150.2

In math and science, it tends to be read as a decimal rather than a fraction ("one hundred fifty point two"). I think the military would read it the same way, though as "one fife zero decimal two."

 

[TGTheodore]

Did anyone in 1968 actually say, "Two thousand aught one: A Space Odyssey"?

We've known how to handle all this for forty years.

--Ted

 

[DanCPA]

I say twenty... for all days after 2010

 

[cultcross]

^ You're the second person who mentioned learning this in grade school. I assume this is why saying 'one hundred fifty' or similar sounds so American to British ears - you're taught from a young age that it's wrong to say 'and', we're taught its grammatical to say 'and'. Hence the discrepancy. It doesn't really make a huge difference to the universe which you say, but the idea that 'and' implies a decimal fraction is brand new to me - I've never seen that usage. Vulgar fractions, yes - "one hundred and fifty and two tenths" but not decimal - "one hundred and fifty point two"

People in America do say one hundred and fifty, but it sounds uneducated when I hear it. Generally, they would say one hundred fifty point two because they're lazy. It's supposed to be spoken as one hundred fifty and two tenths regardless of whether or not it's written as 150 2/10 or 150.2

Where are you getting all this from? Can you provide a reference?
The concept that decimal fractions 'are supposed' to be read as vulgar fractions is just silly - I'd be there all year if I tried to convert all the decimal fractions I work with into vulgar fractions to say them. Science would be one frustrating beast if we had to work with vulgar fractions all the time.
They teach you some weird stuff at school.

 

[Colonel Green]

I've never heard ANYONE refer to post 2009 years using "two thousand".

We're getting the olympics in two years. They are invariably called the "twenty-ten games".

 

[Eric Cheung]

Marty McFly traveled to two-thousand fifteen.