Weather warning, and year terminology

[vilakins]

I just heard there's an extreme weather warning out for southern England (and Wales too, presumably) with the worst snow in 50 years. I hope all of you and your animals will be safe over there.

On a completely unrelated topic, what are people calling this year? I'm saying twenty-ten, not the bulky two-thousand-and-ten (or two-thousand-ten). Say these out loud:
1710
1811
1912.

So this year follows the pattern. The last decade was an anomaly because of 2000 being two thousand and not twenty-hundred, but I hope people go back to the simpler and shorter standard naming from now on.

[Edit] Besides, the old time-tested system breaks years nicely into centuries.
I've been told that 1000-1009 are also different, but it's ten-ten, ten-eleven etc from 1010 onwards. Yep.

Comments

[zoefruitcake]

I'm saying twenty ten

[vilakins]

Yep! It's only logical!

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

Yes stupid snow. It better be over before I have to train it down to London/go to uni by friggin bus.

Uh. I never even thought about the year. I don't ever say the year aloud, I've noticed just "last year" or "3 years ago" or whatever.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I loved snow when I lived in England and Germany. It's so exotic and so much fun. We have plenty here on the mountains, but on houses? Coolness!

I do too, but I do say the year too if I remember it, like watching and falling for B7 in 2001. Should be twenty-oh-one but it isn't. I'm going to say it the standard way from now on.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Ha! I now recognise that icon! And I now know what that discussion about Eddis not being Eddia was about. And go her!

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

I'm saying two thousand and ten, only because it drives me up the *wall* when people split numbers into new sets of numbers (I have trouble enough keeping up with any numbers, rather than having to imagine a "twenty" and a "ten" and put them together--that takes three separate things to compute rather than just "two thousand and ten" because that's one number in my head). I go absolutely spare when people say "hundred" or "thousand" when they read out phone numbers or postcodes and such (when they are, er, longer than three digits or four digits), because that requires more mental computing to figure out what the hell they mean by "six thousand, five hundred, twenty twenty".

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'd have to think about that last one too. I've heard people break phone numbers into double digits, like fifty-two eight ninety-five fifty-nine, but I don't.

It's a system I only ever use for years, but since I say eighteen-twelve etc, I'll keep to it. Besides, it breaks the numbers nicely into centuries. :-)

Is the Finnish numbering system logical? There are some odd ones around like the French one which goes nuts when they hit 70, where they go sixty-ten, sisty-eleven etc. Oy.

[vandonovan.livejournal.com]

If someone ever read me a phone number or post code with "six thousand, five hundred, twenty twenty" I'd punch them in the face. I've always heard/given numbers like that one number at a time. From what you've said prior, would you prefer that to be given as "six hundred, fifty two thousand, twenty"? (I'm not even sure I've gotten the numbers right, I assume you're going for 652020.) I guess I get 567-1500 being "five, six, seven, fifteen-hundred" as a bit confusing. But do you say "one thousand, nineteen hundred, sixty-seven" or "nineteen-sixty-seven" for 1967? I mean, I think everyone says "I love the nineteen-sixties!" or knows what that means. I view "twenty-ten" the same way.

Ah well, I figure everyone will kno what two-thousand-ten means anyway. It'll only get really cumbersome once the two-thousand rolles over to twenty-one-thousand forty-two.)

Anyway.

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

Only southern England? We've got at least six inches here and it's still falling... and that's a lot for England in general.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Well, that's what the warning said. Maybe they'll change it. Eep.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

So far I'm saying two thousand ten (no and) but I suspect by next year I'll be willing to upgrade to twenty eleven, 'cuz 11 has 3 syllababbles all on its own.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

The "and" is only in British English; ignore it. :-) And I like how the eighteen-twelve, twenty-ten system divides things nicely into centuries.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

We had that warning broadcast early this afternoon just as the snow storm in my picture started(around 12:30pm) but that was only a shower and melted quickly. Beth managed to get her car down the hill and we went looking for necessary supplies like dog food for Losyn and a pot of Bertoli (olive oil spread for bread.)for me only to find that people had descended on ASDA and Sainsbury's like a swarm of locust. Leaving very little for human sustenance but the dog won't starve. Ah well we will survive, I have a half pound of butter left over from Christmas Cake making if I run out of healthy stuff.

[daiseechain.livejournal.com]

Our locals here have been running out of foodstuffs for a while now. They never got restocked after "The Great Snow of '09" {insert quavery voiceover there}. I think they were expecting to be able to get to it this week...

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

I'm going with twenty-ten. They've been referring to the London Olympics as twenty-twelve all along.

And on the weather front, I've just had a phone call. School's closed tomorrow, I don't have to go out. :~)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Good for them! It makes sense to go by centuries, not millennia.

[quarryquest.livejournal.com]

Not much snow here as yet ... but they are saying it might turn up later in the night.

There was a hamster weather warning (only nose visible) when I cgot home this evening - even Mr useless furry bedmaker had made a sort of impressive attempt at a nest- so I was understanding something was going to happen.

I'll take photos if there is anything interesting weather wise on the way into work tomorrow.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Apparently it's all meant to come down overnight.

Animals often know!

[elmey.livejournal.com]

I'm going with twenty ten also. Good luck with the snowstorms, here it's just plain cold.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'm in midsummer here, but I thought I'd warn people in case they hadn't heard. :-) Does NYC get much snow? I know cities don't, as much.

[babel.livejournal.com]

Twenty-ten, definitely. Two thousand (and) ten sounds a bit overly proper to me. I almost expect a "year of our lord" before it.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

[laughs] Yet the previous eight years were referred to that way. Weirdness. After all, it's ten-sixty-six and all that.

[vandonovan.livejournal.com]

Twenty-ten for me, for the exact same reason: I say Nineteen-ten, too, or whatever. And it's easier to say!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It is! And this is always a factor. I call the letter W "dub" because "double-u" is ridiculously long, especially in spoken URLs. Though "wub" would be more W-y yet probably not understandable.

[daiseechain.livejournal.com]

I just heard there's an extreme weather warning out for southern England

Snowpocalypto has begun already. I made sure to get us to the supermarket tonight just before the front hit. Four hours later we're ankle deep in snow and it hasn't stopped. K is grumbling that I've spent too much on groceries but he failed to notice the supermarket shelves are running out of *food* and have been for weeks now; they were expecting to be able to restock by now!

On the subject of naming, some (t)wit(ter) pronounced they year to be 'ten past eight', which I thought rather good.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

There's stuff missing off our shelves, which happens every January. [rolls eyes] No forward planning.

Ha! That's good one! :-D

[hafren.livejournal.com]

Oh, southerners think extreme weather means "can't drive". Wusses to a man...:)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

:-D You're very northern now. :-) What's the weather like there?

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

I'm still saying two-thousand-and-ten automatically, but I'm pretty sure that will fade away as the consensus around me is twenty-ten, and I'm a magpie...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

And it's the pattern used for almost every year. There aren't many people though who get to live through the anomalous decade at the beginning of a millennium.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Twenty-ten for me. After all, we always say ten-sixtysix.

We had about 5 inches (13 cm) of snow here overnight, which may be the most lying here since 1991. I decided not to walk the half mile down to the shops, mainly because I don't suppose that the newspapers will have arrived.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Yep! I like the century being one of the divisions.

Can you read the papers on line? A fair bit of our one goes up each day, but not the cryptic crossword, alas. Greg usually nicks it out of a paper at work for me.

[usuallyhats]

Twenty-ten, definitely! It sounds neater.

We had about three inches of snow last night and it's been snowing on and off all day. Luckily I live within walking distance of work and the shops!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I just saw your lovely photo taken on your way to work. :-)

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

I'm going with twenty-ten. It follows the pattern of previous centuries that way.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Exactly! :-)