It's not about the syllables. I've been conducting an informal survey among people I see so far this year. It's beginning to look like "twenty-ten," by a pretty good majority. I was a "two-thousand-nine" guy all the way last year, only occasionally substituting "09," but never "twenty-oh-nine." Early results showed that younger adults lean toward "twenty-ten," while people who have seen a few more years are more inclined to feel they are more likely to use "two-thousand-ten." If you think about it, "twenty-ten" is the more traditional, as generations used "nineteen-ten," "nineteen-eleven"…"nineteen-ninety-eight." "nineteen-ninety-nine," etc. And, before that, were the thirteens, fourteens, fifteens, sixteens, seventeens and eighteens. But most people I talk with don't over-think it. They just say "twenty-ten" sounds right. And no, I am not hearing that fewer syllables mean a smaller carbon footprint, or less energy consumed due to fewer syllables. So, which do you expect to use more often—twenty-ten, or two-thousand-ten?
