...not “Two Thousand Eighteen”…

Think about the years past…

• 1492 = “fourteen ninety-two”
• 1776 = “seventeen seventy-six”
• 1984 = “nineteen eighty-four”

Now, we are eight years hence from 20xx where xx was a number with two digits. “Two thousand six” (4 syllables) is the same as “twenty oh six” or “twenty aught six” or “twenty and six” (though see the note at the end about “and”). However, “two thousand eighteen” (5 syllables) is longer than “twenty eighteen” (4 syllables).

I know we got on the “two thousand” thing with the “year 2000”, but it's time to get back to pronouncing our years they way they should be pronounced.

Note on “and”: No number has the word “and” in it. 117 = One hundred seventeen; 8,402 = eight thousand, four hundred two (or four-oh-two, or eighty-four oh-two); and 5,332,012 = five million, three hundred thirty-two thousand, twelve. (That last one is another reason 2012 is “twenty twelve”; it disambiguates years from numbers in other contexts.) Therefore, “two thousand and eighteen” is right out.