Some time ago I published a post about how to say 2010 (click here if you want to read it) . Now , we are in May 2011 and I’ve heard the year 2011 said ,so far ,in three different ways. Now, dear native speakers you can see why we sometimes find it a bit difficult to understand your
language.But ,although you can say in at least three different ways, I’m going to stick to the one I hear more often ,’casue this is the one my dear colleague Beth fancies” Two thousand eleven” , though I’ve realized after reading lots of comments that “Twenty eleven” seems to be the most popular.
When asked, these are some the things Internet users have said:
♥”Twenty Eleven should be the proper way to pronounce it. Back in 1996 did we call it “One Thousand Nine-Hundred Ninety-Six” or “Nineteen-Hundred Ninety-Six? No, we did not. We called it “Nineteen Ninety-Six”. Over the years of the last decade we got into a habit of saying Two Thousand at the start of the year because it sounded better than for example “Twenty Oh Eight”. Now we’re in the next decade we can stop doing that, because it’s quicker and easier to say Twenty instead of Two Thousand. I thought it would have caught on by the end of last year, but it never”.
♥”I do it either way.. but I prefer twenty-eleven.”
♥Two thousand eleven.
♥I say two thousand AND eleven
♥I keep going back and forth.But I think I’ll eventually side 20-11 and so on just because it’s less of a mouthful.
I can’t help but think that these problems about the language wouldn’t exist if the English language were regulated by an institution like the one that regulates the Spanish Language , our Real Academia de la Lengua.
You might want to read:
The English language does not have a Real Academia de la Lengua
