A bit of a "Monday Moan" this, but I heard it on the radio again this morning and was reminded how much it bugs me when people say "back in two oh five" or "he won the title in two oh three" when then mean 2005 and 2003. That's two THOUSAND and five. Or twenty oh five. Or even, if you really insist, two-oh-oh-five. But definitely not two-oh-five.
Why do people find it so hard to (a) call the numbers right or (b) follow the conventions established for centuries? When were you born? It'll be 19-and-something. Nineteen sixty one, or nineteen eighty one, etc. Isn't it a no-brainer to carry on calling the year the same way, only with twenty?
We all refer to the years of the first decade of the 20th century as, e.g. nineteen oh eight. So what's wrong with twenty oh eight?
I know, I know, I shouldn't bother about this stuff, and I'm sure the problem will go away from 2010 onwards (either because everyone will revert to "twenty ten" etc, or the plonkers will carry on saying "two-oh-ten" but by then that will actually be correct), but it bugs the hell out of me. Sorry.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
I totally agree with you, the whole new millenium thing totally screwed up the naming conventions for years. Super annoying.
http://rachnostunk.blogspot.com/
Somtimes it's hard to be a pedant. There's such a lot to annoy us these days...
My pet peeve is the apostrophe catastrophe. I'm noticing it more and more even in professional advertising "flyer's" and "sign's". Yeesh.
I agree completely—about both this issue and the issue concerning the apostrophe catastrophe. The one that irks me the most concerning apostrophes is a usage of "1980's" and the like.
I think the main reason some people (mainly older) say "two oh eight" for 2008 is because they miss the old way of saying "nineteen oh eight", but they avoid saying "twenty oh eight" just because it sounds weird—which is likely because of the difficult "y-oh" (ee-oh) vowel combination.
Anyway, like you said, this will resolve itself in 2010. Just two years away. And I presume that within 30 years or so, people will refer back to "twenty oh eight" (2008) because they'll be so used to "twenty" by then.
Post a Comment