1904? 2004? 2014?

How do you pronounce years? Twenty-fourteen? Two thousand fourteen? Two-oh-one-four?

What about 2008? 1945? 1901?

Let's go back farther. How about 1119, the founding of the Knights Templar? 674, the siege of Constantinople?

We have the 70s, the 80s and the 90s. What do you call the current decade (2010 - present) or the last (2000 - 2009)?

Sometimes years are abbreviated. "I was born in '67. He proposed in '91. WW2 was in '45." What happens when it's 2000?

If you speak other languages, how do you pronounce it? For example, in Japanese we say it as a full number, so the year I was born would be "one thousand nine hundred eighty six Year". In Chinese we pronounce it like a telephone number, so Pope Francis was elected in "two-zero-one-three Year".

I'm more interested in how *you* pronounce it, not what Wikipedia says or what is "right"; just what sounds right to you.

Two thousand fourteen is what I say.

I've heard others say twenty fourteen too.

However, if I think about when it is 2114, although I sure won't be here, it only sounds right using the twenty thingy, like twenty one fourteen

The way we dropped the 19 it was more later years, like I graduated in 79, so I'd think in 2079 it will be shortened again then too! A kid saying I graduate in 79 .........meaning 2079.

catwoman707 said:

Two thousand fourteen is what I say.
I've heard others say twenty fourteen too.

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I really wonder whether that's an age thing. When I was growing up, "2000" sounded like a magical number in the distant future, which it wouldn't to a person born in the '80s or '90s.

Anything before 2000 I shorten, e.g., nineteen forty-five, six seventy-four, ten fifty-four, unless I'm speaking German. Then the "hundred" is usually included, e.g., Elfhundertneunzehn = eleven hundred nineteen, though not necessary.

FhiCat said:

We have the 70s, the 80s and the 90s. What do you call the current decade (2010 - present) or the last (2000 - 2009)?

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Honestly, I haven't heard anything that sounds right. The "oughties" for 2000 -2009 sounds strange whenever I hear it, so I tend to say stuff like the last decade vs. the current decade.

When giving a birth year, I drop the "19", but use "eighteen 'whatever" or "two thousand 'whatever'".

jcat said:

I really wonder whether that's an age thing. When I was growing up, "2000" sounded like a magical number in the distant future, which it wouldn't to a person born in the '80s or '90s.

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Towards the end of 1999, I remember feeling depressed for a couple of weeks. I was 12 years old, and for some reason I thought that once it was midnight on the New Year of 2000, the world will abruptly and magically change. Vehicles will be "driving" in midair, spaceship trips to the moon will be a common honeymoon destination, and androids will become a staple of life. Everything I know and recognize would be gone, replaced by scenes from a futuristic sci-fi movie.

I remember crying in bed and alarming my parents. When the clock struck midnight, they took me out for a drive, and what do I know? Nothing changed! I was SO happy I cried again.

Ah, the joy of being a 12-year-old.

You know, the fact that we are even talking about 2014 still blows my mind, sometimes. I mean, here we are.....we survived another hundred years and are in the 2000s! It just boggles my mind sometimes. I remember all the brewhaha over even 2000 and how the computers were going to get all messed up and it was going to be bad. And nothing much happened. And we're already 14, almost into our 15th year after that! It does, it just throws me for a loop sometimes. I guess I'm just easily boggled or something. 

But I digress....sorry. Something like 1955 is just '55 (I was born in '55). 2014 is twenty-fourteen. 1901 is nineteen-oh-one. And 2008 is two-thousand-eight. About the decade of 2000, I would say, "During the two-thousands". For the decade of 2011 to 2020, I would say, "During the 20-teens" I guess. Something like that.

Any single digit year number (01, 02, 03, up to 09), I include the thousandth years as the double digit number, so nineteen oh one where the adding the zero as an "oh" flows better to me, and then two thousand nine. Sometimes adding the "and" (two thousand and nine) helps it flow too, but I wouldn't lose sleep if I didn't include it. I would say 2014 as twenty fourteen. I always specify the first two digits if I'm talking about 2000 onward because everyone I talk to was born before then, so just saying '94 (ninety-four) or '89 (eighty-nine) is easily identifiable as the 1900s.

My mom does the same with 1900s years like birth years by cutting off the 19 and just saying, in Chinese, "eight four year".