1991/1992/1993=early 90s, 2001/2002/2003=?

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english-kazan

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How do you say the years? Anyone?
 

TheParser

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How do you say the years? Anyone?

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Hello, English-Kazan.

(1) I have asked a "million" people the same question, and no one

has been able to give me a satisfactory SHORT answer.

(2) I heard one reporter on TV call 2000 - 2009 the "OO's."

(He pronounced the letter O)

(3) An American magazine recently used the term "the aughts."

(a) "aught" = 0

(b) Of course, 95% (?) of Americans would never use that term.

(c) But it is nice, isn't it?

(4) I guess you will just have to say "the first decade of this century."

P .S. I hope you say "the aughts." If I ever have to mention that

decade, I plan to use that term -- especially in writing. If enough

people start using that term, it will then become the "correct"

term: the 1980s, the 1990s, the aughts.

***** THANK YOU *****
 

english-kazan

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The early two thousands from Raymott sounds OK, doesn't it.
 

Barb_D

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"Just after the turn of the millennium."

How about that?
 

Rover_KE

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Many people call these years the noughties.

Rover
 

bertietheblue

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Many people call these years the noughties.

Rover

I posted about this last week. I commented that I had a recently noticed 'the noughties' being used without quotes in the Guardian.
 

Allen165

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The early two thousands.

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.
 

bertietheblue

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Just to answer the question, here are some possibilities:

the early 2000s
the years [immediately] following the millennium
the first few years/early part of the last decade/noughties [BrEng at least!]
the post-millennium years/period
the years post millennium
the years subsequent to the millennium [hmm, maybe that's me reverting to legal English as is my wont]

or how about:

From [about/roughly] 2001 to 2003
Between [about/roughly] 2001 and 2003

?
 

Raymott

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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.
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."
 

Raymott

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the first few years/early part of the last decade
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".
 

bertietheblue

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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".
:up: Fair point.
 

Allen165

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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."

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
 

Raymott

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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.
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.
It does not mean I only worked there in 2002.

If I said my sentence, and you were unclear, you could ask me whether I meant those months to be inclusive or exclusive. I think most English speakers would simply infer inclusion.
Naturally, I could be still more precise if I wanted to but weight changes don't happen that quickly.
 
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