english-kazan
Junior Member
- Joined
- May 8, 2010
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- Russian
- Home Country
- Russian Federation
- Current Location
- Russian Federation
How do you say the years? Anyone?
The early two thousands.How do you say the years? Anyone?
How do you say the years? Anyone?
Many people call these years the noughties.
Rover
The early two thousands.
That's a problem with any term taken out of context. It's a problem with "the early nineties" - 1890s? 1990s?The problem with your suggestion is that it's somewhat inexact or vague. The 2030s, for example, could be considered to be part of the early two thousands.
This has the disadvantage that not everyone would agree that a new decade began in 2010, although I'll concede that it's traditional to call a decade by its penultimate number.the first few years/early part of the last decade
:up: Fair point.This has the disadvantage that not everyone would agree that a new decade began in 2010, although I'll concede that it's traditional to call a decade by its penultimate number.
But we've only had 9.5 years so far this century/millennium.
Also, "the last decade" could mean "in the last ten years".
That's a problem with any term taken out of context. It's a problem with "the early nineties" - 1890s? 1990s?
However, if I said, "I used to be overweight back in the early two thousands", you'd probably know what I meant.
Obviously, it's inexact and vague - it's meant to be. If I wanted to be precise, I'd say, "I used to be fat between March, 2001 and August, 2003."
No, my sentence doesn't mean that. I mean "inclusively". If I say, "I worked there between 2001 and 2003, it means I started there sometime in 2001, and left sometime in 2003. That's as specific as I choose to be.Wouldn't you have to say, "I used to be fat from March, 2001 to August, 2003."? Your sentence, read literally, means that you were fat from April, 2001 to July, 2003. Is that what you meant to express?
Cf. Grammar Girl : "Between," "Compared to," and "Compared With" :: Quick and Dirty Tips
"If you use “between 2003 and 2004” construction, you may be trying to describe a time spanning all or part of those two years or you may be trying to contrast one year against the other."
If you read this too pedantically, you'd have to say that "between 2003 and 2004" is impossible, since there's nothing between them at all, but my sentence does give a valid and understandable time range.