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#5664 08/25/00 05:54 AM
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Is there an agreed upon term to speak 00 when referring to this year? There seemed to be some hoopla in 99 regarding what would become accepted in speech but I only see avoidance of it.


#5665 08/25/00 05:58 AM
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Dear Michaelo,
How do you "speak 00"?
a. "Oh, Oh"
b. "Zero Zero"
c. "Nil Nil"
d. "Null Null"
e. "Zero-Oh"...


#5666 08/25/00 06:28 AM
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I haven't heard or said any of those. I've heard: this year, two thousand, and (incorrectly) the millennium.
Y2K seems to have been abandoned as (incorrectly) "that computer problem."

"These are the data from spring zero zero and those are the data from ninety-nine" just doesn't sound right.




#5667 08/25/00 10:48 AM
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"These are the data from spring zero zero and those are the data from ninety-nine" just doesn't sound right.

Maybe it doesn't sound right cos surely noone treats "data" as a plural any more.....not in the year '00.......














#5668 08/25/00 12:35 PM
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I am interested in rising conventions about how we refer to the current year. I like the reduced number of syllables in "March thirteenth, two thousand" as opposed to "March thirteenth, nineteen nintey-nine."

I still have trouble (and have for about two years) easily giving the expiration date of my credit card over the telephone. For an expiration date of 06/02, do I say "Oh six, Oh two" or "six, Oh two" or scrap everything and say "June, two thousand two"?


#5669 08/25/00 12:46 PM
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just for the record, "oh" is a letter and "zero" is a number...


#5670 08/25/00 04:39 PM
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>>just for the record, "oh" is a letter and "zero" is a number...

Yep. Strange how one extra syllable will tear me away from my principles. "Oh" is just easier to say than "zero." What suggestions do you have for my monosyllabic number "seven?"




#5671 08/25/00 04:54 PM
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>What suggestions do you have for my monosyllabic number
"seven?"

it was abbreviated as "sen" in sennight (the period of seven nights and days, cf fortnight); so there is precedent for using that....


#5672 08/25/00 08:06 PM
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>>Maybe it doesn't sound right cos surely noone treats "data" as a plural any more.....not in the year '00.......

*raising hand* _We_ do!


#5673 08/27/00 11:00 PM
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I now think that two thousand one, two, etc. is not really an encumbrance afterall but for the sake of construction consistency I would have to say nineteen ninety nine which is a little weighty. You'd think I didn't have more to worry about like global destruction, but how will we refer to this decade in the future? I've already rejected the zero-zeros. Maybe just the zeros?


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