this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2025
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No Stupid Questions

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I grew up in the 90s and I remember being able to truncate the year down to just 2 numbers when talking about years within the current millennium. It seems like we're still saying twenty before every year and I'm just wondering when that will change.

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[–] Cevilia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 9 hours ago

You could do it since 00

[–] AstroLightz@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

Maybe 20 will be a better year than 20, and people will start shorting it to 20 instead of 20. /j

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 17 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)
[–] ooterness@lemmy.world 69 points 1 day ago (6 children)

ISO8601 / RFC3339 gang represent. You'll have to take four digit years from my cold, dead hands.

[–] qaz@lemmy.world 3 points 14 hours ago

!rfc3339@programming.dev

[–] DrFistington@lemmy.world 4 points 22 hours ago

Spitting hot truth.

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[–] kamen@lemmy.world 4 points 15 hours ago

Depends on the language honestly. In my native language (that's not English) it sounds somewhat clumsy with the zero in front, but it's still sometimes used. Depending on the context it might be a simple number (zero two) or it might be an ordinal (zero second). From 2010 and on it's been easier because you just say the equivalent of "tenth", "eleventh" and so on.

In writing it also depends on the context - if it's something ambiguous (that could be 1925 or 2025), then sure, write the full year, otherwise two digits are fine.

[–] Perspectivist@feddit.uk 12 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I've been doing that since -01

[–] the_mighty_kracken@lemmy.world 5 points 16 hours ago (2 children)
[–] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 9 hours ago

"Oh 1" in British English

[–] Perspectivist@feddit.uk 6 points 16 hours ago (1 children)
[–] the_mighty_kracken@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago

Oh, cool! I enjoyed saying "aught" because it's an archaic word for zero, so I felt like an old-timer whenever I said it.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 29 points 1 day ago

It's important to say the "20" prefix so that viewers will know that we're set in "the future."

[–] MnemonicBump@lemmy.dbzer0.com 36 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I've been doing it since '01 (pronounced "Oh-Won"). I thought everyone else has been too?

[–] mcqtom@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Nah, I couldn't even bring myself to say "twenty" something until 2013. Before that it was all like "two thousand and five".

Still saying the twenty part. Not sure when that can fall away. Since I was around for the nineteens, maybe I'll never stop.

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[–] db2@lemmy.world 5 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

Time to ruin your day. They've been calling that time period the "aughties".

[–] Soggy@lemmy.world 3 points 14 hours ago

I prefer "naughties"

[–] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 4 points 20 hours ago

Time to ruin your day…

The words naughties and aughties are interchangeable and we have been calling them that since 2000.

[–] swordgeek@lemmy.ca 4 points 23 hours ago (4 children)

Most English-spealking people outside the US said 'aught' instead of 'oh', but definitely about 2005 the 'two thousand and' syntax evaporated.

[–] bryndos@fedia.io 2 points 17 hours ago

In UK I've mostly have heard 'naughties' for the decade sine about 1999. But I rarely heard "naughty X" as a year name unless someone was being even more deliberately daft. I'd say "oh" would be most common here after "two thousand and X" too in my experience.

I always thought that "'aught" was an American contraction of 'naught'.

"aught" in old timey-English can mean "other" or "else" or even "anything". In my local dialect we still say "owt" meaning "anything" as an opposite of "nowt" nothing".

[–] LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz 2 points 21 hours ago

Our quirky university president tried very hard to make "aughty-aught" happen for 2000. It did not catch on.

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[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 9 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

IMHO when the two digit year equals the median age of all living people.

In other words, when the people who are born in 2xxx become the majority. That's probably somewhere in the thirties.

(Not counting the ones who use a different year number, for example Chinese, Jews...)

[–] fan0m@lemmy.world 29 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You can now If you want. Who cares?

[–] cRazi_man@europe.pub 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I wouldn't start right now. That would be too drastic. At least leave it till tomorrow.

[–] Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Just start by dropping it down to 3 numbers and see how you go from there.

[–] MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 6 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

My favourite year was 201, a lot happened.

[–] dusty_raven@discuss.online 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

That was my favorite decade

[–] And009@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 14 hours ago
[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 5 points 19 hours ago

We already do in colloquial Japanese.

[–] SolidShake@lemmy.world 10 points 23 hours ago

You can now ....it's the 20s

[–] nostrauxendar@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

You can totally start now. Although, and maybe this is just a me thing, I'd feel like a massive bellend if I referred to something that happened in, for instance, 2021 as "in '21".

I think I'd feel okay with "'01", through to "'09", then the teens feel weird again but only because it just feels weird to refer to a year as small as like.. "'13".. although I don't have that same problem with the naughties, maybe that's because of the added "oh" making it seem like more than just a number? And then the twenties feel like big enough numbers to abbreviate but, yeah, again, I'd feel like a tool.

In the 30s you can start talking about the 20s. It will be annoying at first because people will try to be funny and/or get intentionally get confused that you’re talking about the 1920s.

I’d imagine talking the way you’re being nostalgic about will be in full swing by the 2040s.

[–] thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

It started this year actually. 2025 is being called "the big 25" as slang.

[–] lordnikon@lemmy.world 4 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I hope never so we never have Y2K again

[–] DoubleDongle@lemmy.world 4 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I started this year, and I think you can refer to years as far back as '22 without it feeling awkward.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 2 points 21 hours ago
[–] DireTech@sh.itjust.works 4 points 21 hours ago

Considering my kids already refer to pre millennial days as the ancient 19’s, you can already do it with the younger crowd.

[–] NutinButNet@hilariouschaos.com 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I guess it depends on what you’re talking about.

Most of my conversations are about computers and technology, so shortening to 25 from 2025 is obvious since 1925, 1825, etc. didn’t have technology involving an iPhone, Linux, etc.

But if we’re talking something like cars, you probably need to be specific. You won’t be able to say something like “I bought a ‘20 Ford” because that could be at least two different years.

[–] bryndos@fedia.io 2 points 17 hours ago

Agreed, spent too much time recently trying to get a "modern" database to accept one of out transactional systems' dummy EOT value (3456-02-01).

Took far, far too long for me to realise that it only wanted to store date/time in nanoseconds !? Fuck me, you'd have to be dumb fuck computer to want to measure every date in nanoseconds - even oracle wasn't that dumb, oh hang on we're "upgrading" to MS.

There must be a joke in here to do with dates that only last a nanosecond, I think it's to do with pandas' breeding rates.

[–] Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

I've found myself using just 2 numbers for the years after 2020

[–] zxqwas@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago

I belive that change will come when both of us are dead. To me the 20s still mean 1920.

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