I have to say it's a real relief to be in the new millenium. Before then, I was saying one thousand nine hundred ninety nine, which is a mouthful. Actually, saying years in French really is that tedious. Either: "mille neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix-neuf" or "dix-neuf-cent-quatre-vingt-dix-neuf"
aRgHhHHh!!! You keep calling this 2015 year something like "twenty fifteen" and like the Y2K in the 1900's, we will be having a Y-twenty-H problem...!!!
2000-2009 were the anomalies. It had more to do IMO because of the thousandness of the year 2000. Had it been 2099 to 2100 to 2101, it wouldn't have been such a drastic change. Twenty ninety-nine Twenty-one hundred Twenty-one oh one vs Nineteen ninety-nine TWO THOUSAND Twenty oh one So people stuck with two thousand one, two thousand two, etc. Then after 2009, twenty-ten was one syllable less, and fit back with the old norm.
I think by 2017 most will convert to the "twenty" way. Since "two-thousand-seven-teen" is already 6 syllables long. Then we'll all get used to it and just go ahead with twenty-18 and so fourth.
