Saying dates / years [AE vs BE] (2025)

Hello, I'm trying to figure out the difference in the reading of years between British and American English.
Is my grasp of it correct?

2001: twenty oh one OR two thousand one (US); two thousand and one (UK)
2019: twenty nineteen (US); two thousand and nineteen (UK), and I guess the same goes for 2010.

Thanks for your help.

We also say twenty nineteen etc in BrE.

If you put saying years into the Dictionary and thread title search box at the top of the page, you'll find several earlier threads. Here's one: Saying years - how to speak, pronounce, year numbers ... 2020, 2090

There are several different ways of reading years, especially those of the current century. Most are common to both BrE and AmE.

One key difference, though, is the inclusion or non-inclusion of the 'and' in the middle. While all speakers might refer to the year 2019 as twenty nineteen, there is a difference when we use the two thousand... option. Most BrE speakers using this option would probably say two thousand and nineteen, while an AmE speaker would omit the 'and' and say two thousand nineteen.

Wordy McWordface said:

Most BrE speakers using this option would probably say two thousand and nineteen

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Except we probably wouldn't. In the late twentieth century, we were very unsure about what to call the years of the twenty-first century, and we still haven't decided on a single standard pronunciation of the years 2001-2009, but we have now pretty much settled on "twenty whatever" for 2010 onwards.

A speaker of 2006 might well have said "two thousand and nineteen", but I would be rather surprised to hear it spoken like this in 2022.

Uncle Jack said:

...
A speaker of 2006 might well have said "two thousand and nineteen", but I would be rather surprised to hear it spoken like this in 2022.

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But what would you now say for 2006?

I don't know about AE, but here's a BE point point of view.
It's normally Twenty oh one, twenty nineteen, nineteen forty-seven, ten sixty-six, nine fifty-seven.
Two thousand and nineteen, nineteen hundred and forty-seven, one thousand and sixty-six, and nine hundred and fifty-seven would be correct but formal. Stanley Kubrick's film is Two thousand and one: A Space Odyssey.

Cross-posted.
I'd say twenty oh six. Two thousand and six would be correct.

Chasint said:

But what would you now say for 2006?

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I would say "twenty oh six", but this is far from universal, which is why I added the bit about the years 2001-2009.

lewoz said:

twenty oh one

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I’ve never heard this. I’ve only ever heard/used “twenty X” starting with 2010.

elroy said:

I’ve never heard this. I’ve only ever heard/used “twenty X” starting with 2010.

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I don't think I've heard twenty oh one, either.

For the years of the first decade of this century, we tend to say two thousand and one, two thousand and two and so on. Did AmE speakers also omit the 'and' with those years (two thousand one)?

We do use the oh formula for previous centuries, though - 1901 is nineteen oh one, for example.

Wordy McWordface said:

Did AmE speakers also omit the 'and' with those years (two thousand one)?

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Yes, did and do, when we refer to those years.

Wordy McWordface said:

We do use the oh formula for previous centuries, though - 1901 is nineteen oh one, for example.

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Same.

lewoz said:

How about 1001: one thousand (and) one?

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It doesn't sound much like a year. (sounds more like carpet shampoo...)

lewoz said:

I would rather say ten oh one.

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So would I.

lewoz said:

But is it possible? Thanks

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Technically possible, but very odd. Years in that century are always ten... something.

lewoz said:

2002: two thousand oh two

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This is wrong.

lewoz said:

Thanks.
But in the UK, would people say,
2022: two thousand and two, OR twenty twenty-two?
Last question, I promise...

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What year are you asking about? 2002 or 2022?

lewoz said:

Thanks.
But in the UK, would people say,
2022: two thousand and two, OR twenty twenty-two?
Last question, I promise...

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two thousand and two
two thousand and twenty-two
twenty twenty-two

In BE, we'd say the same for all those except for 2001, where we would say 'two thousand and one.'

Oh, and we might say 'Four hundred and nine.' It's not a year we are very likely to talk about, so I can't be 100% certain.

Wordy McWordface said:

Most BrE speakers using this option would probably say two thousand and nineteen, while an AmE speaker would omit the 'and' and say two thousand nineteen.

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It's worth adding that the "and" is very fleeting, just a syllabic N really. As people have said 2019 is not read out as "the year of our Lord two thousand and nineteen"; it is just 20-19. But if you had a number -not a date - 2019, it would be "two thousand 'n nineteen people turned up" (or whatever). The 'n is hard to hear, but it is in there.

There are so many contexts - time, money, things - and sentences, that I think most people use a variety, and might not even be aware of how much variety they use. I can think of times that I would say all these forms.

I could call the year 409 as:

Four oh nine
Four hundred nine
Four hundred and nine

It would be inaccurate to say I only use one way.

I regularly use both twenty-nineteen and two thousand nineteen. It just depends. I might also use two thousand and nineteen (but less frequently).