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Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

Name of decade

We refer to the years 1900 - 1909 as the 1900's.

How should we refer to the years 2000 - 2009?

Thank you.
  

Top answer

Actually, we refer to the years 1800 - 18 99 as the eighteen hundreds (1800s) , the years 1700 - 17 99 as the seventeen hundreds (1700s) , and the years 1600 - 16 99 as the sixteen hundreds (1600s) . And so on. So I'm not sure why you think that "the nineteen hundreds" should refer to only 10 years rather than to the entire century (1900 - 1999).

— Yankee

  • Actually, we refer to the years 1800 - 18 99 as the eighteen hundreds (1800s) , the years 1700 - 17 99 as the seventeen hundreds (1700s) , and the years 1600 - 16 99 as the sixteen hundreds (1600s) .
  • And so on.
  • So I'm not sure why you think that "the nineteen hundreds" should refer to only 10 years rather than to the entire century (1900 - 1999).
  • We don't actually have a good, short way to refer to the first decade of a century.
  • Some people have used "the aughts" for the first decade of the 21st century.
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2 Answers
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Actually, we refer to the years 1800 - 1899 as the eighteen hundreds (1800s), the years 1700 - 1799 as the seventeen hundreds (1700s), and the years 1600 - 1699 as the sixteen hundreds (1600s). And so on. So I'm not sure why you think that "the nineteen hundreds" should refer to only 10 years rather than to the entire century (1900 - 1999).

We do
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Yankeepeople have used "the aughts" for the first decade of the 21st century.
Here in the UK, the name "noughties" was proposed, but it has not achieved "proper word" status, and is, as far as I'm aware, only ever used light-heartedly.
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