How to read years in english

Saying dates

I have recently been asked why we say years the way we do. Why, for example, do we say nineteen hundred (1900) but two thousand (2000)? The recently released film 2012 (pronounced twenty twelve) has highlighted this question. ‘What will happen in the 22nd century?’, the questioner continued. ‘Will we be saying twenty one hundred and one (2101) or two thousand one hundred and one, or will we stick to twenty one oh one?’

Of course it is impossible to say how usage will change in the future. It is even hard to make reliable statements about current spoken usage without access to a very large corpus of spoken English, but I’ll have a go. My impression is that this confusion all started with the millennium, aka The Year Two Thousand (2000). Before that fateful year came along we all spoke happily of nineteen fifty five (1955) or twelve twenty one (1221) and no one thought anything of it (though years before 1000 did give us pause: I think we tend to say the year eight hundred (800), or eight hundred AD just to be clear that we are referring to a date and not just a number). But we say one thousand, two thousand, not ten hundred or twenty hundred, so it would sound a bit weird to say the year twenty hundred. People therefore became accustomed to referring to the year 2000 as two thousand, and having started on that path it maybe became difficult to switch back to the previous system. Most people have therefore stuck with two thousand and two (2002), two thousand and three (2003) etc, even though it is perfectly possible to say twenty oh two, twenty oh three (on the same pattern as 1902, which as far as I know is always said nineteen oh two). Indeed, if I remember rightly there was something of a campaign to get the latter form accepted on the grounds that it was more logical, and at least some (all?) BBC newsreaders say twenty oh nine (2009) rather than two thousand and nine.

For 2010 on it seems that most people are happy to say twenty ten (2010), twenty fifteen (2015) and so on, and it is hard to imagine that people in the future will say two thousand one hundred (2100) etc rather than twenty one hundred. We shall have to wait and see. Of course, since this and all other ways of numbering dates are the result of historical accident, it may be that future events will lead to a complete change in the way the years are both counted and said.

As for why this way of saying years arose in the first place, I suspect it is simply because it is easier and quicker – try saying 1777 both ways to see what I mean.

I’d be interested to hear your views on this topic.

The date in English – Writing and Spelling

1. General

How to say the year

You normally split up the year in tens.

1985 is split up in 19 and 85. (You say: nineteen eighty-five).

From 2000 until 2009 the year is normally not split up.

The word and is often left out. From 2010 on the year is split up again.

2010 is split up in 20 and 10. (You say: twenty ten).

2. Writing and saying the date in British English

rule: day – month – year

Note: The two letters at the end of the number and the comma are often left out.

3. Writing and saying the date in American English

rule: month – day – year

* The definite article ›the‹ can be left out.

4. Sample sentences and the correct prepositions:

5. Abbreviations BC, AD, BCE, CE

Sometimes BC or AD is added after the year.

The abbrevations BCE or CE are becoming more and more common today.

6. Note

It is common to use numbers instead of months.

British English

American English

If you write 4/8/2011, it is the 4th August 2011 in Britain, but it is April 8th, 2011 in the USA.

How to Say and Write the DATE Correctly in English

How to say and write the date in American and British English correctly through pictures and examples. Learn these common phrases to improve your English.

Table of Contents

The Date in English

General

Saying the Year in English

1800: eighteen hundred

1805: eighteen hundred (and) five

Or eighteen oh-five

1817: eighteen seventeen

1998: nineteen ninety-eight

2000: two thousand

2003: two thousand (and) three

Or twenty oh-three

2011: two thousand (and) eleven

Or twenty eleven

2018: two thousand (and) eighteen

Or twenty eighteen

We often split up the year in tens.

1975 is split up in 19 and 75. (You say: nineteen seventy-five).

From 2000 until 2009 the year is normally not split up.

The word and is often left out. From 2010 on the year is split up again.

2010 is split up in 20 and 10. (You say: twenty ten).

BC – Before Christ

AD – Anno Domini

Decades

…the (1980s) ‘80s – “the (nineteen) eighties”

…the (2000s) ‘00s – “the thousands” or “the aughts”.

Centuries

…the 1800s – “the eighteen hundreds”

…the 6 th century – “the sixth century”

…the 21 st century – “the twenty first century”

Ordinal Numbers

Saying and Writing the Date in English

We often use ordinal numbers for the date in spoken English

Asking the Date

“It’s the 19 th ” or It’s “19 th May” or “May 19 th ”…

How to use IN, ON with Year, Month, Date…

In + Years

in 1980, in 1968, in 1995, in 1963, in 2018…

In + Months

in January, in February, in December…

in the 1960s, in the seventies, in the 1990s…

In + Centuries

in the 15 th century, in the 18 th century, in the 21 st century…

On + Dates

On + Days

on Monday, on Thursday, on Sunday…

Writing and Saying the Date in British English

Rule: Day – Month – Year

Writing: 1 st February, 2011

Saying: The first of February twenty eleven

Writing and Saying the Date in American English

Rule: Month – Day – Year

Writing: February 1st, 2011

Saying: February first twenty eleven

How to read years in english

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This teacher will show you how t read dates in British English.

Abbreviations
Dates are usually written in abbreviations, not with all the words:
— My birthday is May 2nd = My birthday is May 2
read » width=»24″ height=»7″ /> my birthday is (on) May the second (BrE uses the preposition ON before dates and «the» before the number, AmE can use them or not)
We can also say:
— My birthday is 2nd May = My birthday is 2 May
If we want to say the year too:
write » width=»24″ height=»7″ /> Columbus discovered America on Oct 1st, 1492
read » width=»24″ height=»7″ /> Columbus discovered America (on) October (the) first, fourteen ninety-two
Different possibilities:
We can write: Oct or October (but read «october»)
We can write: 1st or 1 (but read «first»)
We can place the day before the month or after the month
But if we write the complete date just with numbers, then we need a fixed order:

Date format in numbers
1/5/07
In BrE = 1st May, 2007 (the first of May, twenty o seven) = day+month+year
In AmE = 5th May, 2007 = month+day+year

Algorithm for Reading Years
If there there are no thousands’ or hundreds’ digits, read the number as-is. Examples:
54 – «fifty-four”
99 – «ninety-nine”
0 – «zero”
8 – «eight”
If there is a thousands’ digit but the hundreds’ digit is zero, you can read the number as «n thousand and x”. If the last two digits are zero, you leave off the «and x” part. Examples:
1054 – «one thousand and fifty-four”
2007 – «two thousand and seven”
1000 – «one thousand”
2000 – «two thousand”
If the hundreds’ digit is non-zero, you can read the number as «n hundred and x”. If the last two digits are zero, you leave off the «and x” part. Examples:
433 – «four hundred and thirty-three”
1492 – «fourteen hundred and ninety-two” (who sailed the ocean blue?)
1200 – «twelve hundred”
600 – «six hundred”
The above rule produces some formal and old-fashioned names. Where it exists, it is acceptable to omit «hundred and”. If you do, and the tens’ digit is zero, you must read that zero as «oh”. Examples:
432 – «four thirty-two”
1492 – «fourteen ninety-two”
1908 – «nineteen oh eight”
1106 – «eleven oh six”
Finally, though uncommon it is possible to read the years in rule #2 using the systems for rules #3 and #4. Examples:
1054 – «ten hundred and fifty-four” (if this sounds wrong to you, imagine you are watching a documentary on the history channel and the stiff narrator begins: «In the year ten hundred and fifty-four, Pope Leo IX died.”)
1054 – «ten fifty-four”
3026 – «thirty twenty-six”
2007 – «twenty oh seven” (if this sounds wrong to you, imagine you live in 1972 and you are reading a science fiction story that starts: «In the year twenty oh seven, the world was overrun by blood-thirsty robots.”)

By writing it out I don’t think I made it any less-complicated, but for what it’s worth there it is.

Does this algorithm work for you? I think I covered all the bases, but let me know in the comments if I missed something.