January 7, 2013
The Year Is Twenty Thirteen Not Two Thousand Thirteen. Got It?
Since the stroke of midnight on January 1, 2010 I’ve been wondering just how long it will take for people to realize that they should now revert back to the old way of saying the year. Since the year 2000 and through 2009 (and beyond for some), we have been saying the year in “thousands,” but up until that time we said the year in two distinct parts. In 1999, did you say “One Thousand Nine Hundred Ninety Nine”? No, I didn’t think so. And it certainly would have made for a less than catchy chorus in a popular Prince song. So why are you now saying “Two Thousand Thirteen” when you could say “Twenty Thirteen”? You realize it’s one less syllable, right?