h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Has anyone else noticed the way that Radio 4 newsreaders are pronouncing the year? I don't think they have been doing this for the whole centuary as I doubt I would have noticed when Charlotte Green said it the other day. They are saying twenty-oh-four. I wonder if there has been a decision taken somewhere that that will be the beebs official way of saying the date?

Do they do this on the TV too?

Haven't noticed, but you can be sure I'll be keeping my ears open for it from now on!

RF

Sounds like hours and minutes to me. But I what I really am looking forward to is how the radio shows will refer to this decade in 6 years time.

B

This decade's known as the noughties. I invented that, but noone believes me.

There's no easy way to say it, it's really awkward!

What's wrong with two thousand and four?

I've got to agree with Kea, the simplest, and the most correct way has got to be two thousand and four.
You can bet your life that if Radio 4 is using Twenty Oh Four regularly my old dad will be storming the letters page of the Times as Mr Angry wondering what the world is coming to!

I use twenty-oh-four, and always have done I would say get used to it as the century goes on it will be more and more common Until later...
BCNU - Crescent

Well, we'd better just hope he doesn't start writing that letter at quarter to eight in the evening then!

RF

Well the years of the twenthith century up until 1960 could also be times. For instance 'nineteen fifty five' could mean 'five to eight in the evening' or or the year 1955.

When did we stop saying, 'the year two thousend'?

"When did we stop saying, 'the year two thousend'?"

When it stopped being the year two thousand?

Spelling errors aside in the 1990s I used to say 'by the year two thousand' But now I don't say 'In the year two thousand I in my first year at university' I'd say 'two thousand was my first year' If you get what I mean.

It's difficult to decide how to say this particular form of the date.

How was 1004 referred to. We all say ten sixty six for 1066 but was 1004 referred to as one thousand and four or ten oh four? (I recognise that they may not have referred to the date in this way at all and if they did it would have been in either Latin or Anglo-Saxon.)

Personally I would say two thousand and... until 2010 which I will probably refer to as twenty ten and so on.

I've just conducted a straw poll and the following came up.

Apparently, there was a debate in the 1960's about how the 2000's would be referred to. The debate was resolver by the film 2001 A Space Odyssey. I have to say that this sounds apocryphal to me but if anybody can corroborate this it would be nice

turvy

To me, saying "twenty-oh-four" is by the far the easier option. Sure, it's like the time, but you can usually tell from the context... When the time comes, I'll say "Twenty-ten".