No Stupid Questions

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

You could do it since 00

Back in 21

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

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

You can now If you want. Who cares?

I've been doing that since -01

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.

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...)

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.

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

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

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.

We already do in colloquial Japanese.

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.

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

I hope never so we never have Y2K again

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

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

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

In the English-speaking world, you can always shorten the year from 4 to 2 digits. But whether: 1) this causes confusion or 2) do you/anyone care if it does, are the points of contention. The first is context-dependent: if a customer service agent over the phone is trying to confirm your date of birth, there's no real security issue if you only say the 2 digit year, because other info would have to match as well.

If instead you are presenting ID as proof of age to buy alcohol, there's a massive difference between 2010 and 1910. An ID card and equivalent documentation must use a four digit year, when there is no other available indicator of the century.

For casual use, like signing your name and date on a holiday card, the ambiguity of the century is basically negligible, since a card like that is enjoyed at the time that it's read, and isn't typically stashed away as a 100-year old memento.

That said, I personally find that in spoken and written English, the inconvenience of the 4 digit year is outweighed by the benefit of properly communicating with non-American English users. This is because us American speak and write the date in a non-intuitive fashion, which is an avoidable point of confusion.

Typical Americans might write "7/1/25" and say "July first, twenty five". British folks might read that as 7 January, or (incorrectly) 25 January 2007. But then for the special holiday of "7/4/25", Americans optionally might say "fourth of July, twenty five". This is slightly less confusing, but a plausible mishearing by the British over a scratchy long-distance telephone call would be "before July 25", which is just wrong.

The confusion is minimized by a full 4 digit year, which would leave only the whole day/month ordering as ambiguous. That is, "7/1/2025" or "1/7/2025".

Though I personally prefer RFC3339 dates, which are strictly YYYY-mm-dd, using 4 digit years, 2 digit months, and 2 digit days. This is always unambiguous, and I sign all paperwork like this, unless it explicitly wants a specific format for the date.

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

Maybe it's generational. Do people born after 2000 already shorten it?