2012

rosa87 said:

Hi,

Recently, I have come across with people reading 2012 as "twenty, twelve". I was wondering if this is correct. I always read it as "two thousand twelve".

Thank you

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emsr2d2 said:

You'll hear "two thousand and twelve" (BrE, I don't know if this is used in AmE), "two thousand twelve" (AmE, never used in BrE) and "twenty twelve". I don't know if the latter is used in AmE but it's become even more prevalent since the subject of the London Olympics has been talked about so much. For some reason the "two thousand and twelve Olympics" doesn't sound as neat as the "twenty twelve Olympics" or, as it's known here, "London twenty twelve".

We didn't say the years this way in the UK until 2010 (ie we never said "twenty oh eight" etc). I have heard people using "twenty ten" - that may be because there was a film (sequel to 2001 A Space Odyssey) by the same name and that was officially referred to as "twenty ten". I don't think "twenty eleven" was as popular though.

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bhaisahab said:

I was horrified to hear somebody on BBC Radio 4 say "That was in twenty oh seven".:shock:
This was yesterday.

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bhaisahab said:

I was horrified to hear somebody on BBC Radio 4 say "That was in twenty oh seven".:shock:
This was yesterday.

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5jj said:

I'd horrify you; I say "oh seven" (without the 'twenty) in informal conversation. Within my family, I even say "ought seven", a conscious reminder of the way my grandfather used to speak of the years of the first decade of the twentieth century.

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