How'll we refer to the 2000s?

<<<<<Ease of expression...less effort and all that.>>>>>>

yeah LAZY ! LAZY ! LAZY !

Not just the words you even cutting the numbers …

<<<<how would a German say 2006?>>>

2006 in GERMAN is ZWEI TAUSEND UND SECHS. Two thousand and six!

That's strange really. When I've heard Germans quote a year before the millennium, eg 1996, they all seemed to say "nineteen hundred and ninety six". Or 1850 = "eighteen hundred and fifty". It seems then that they've followed the most popular English speaking pattern then in calling this year "two thousand and six". I'm convinced this will change soon, probably from 2010 onwards..."twenty ten" instead of the superfluous "two thousand and ten". Three syllables instead of five.

"Three syllables instead of five. "

No wonder the anglo saxon are so fat !

The mega obese and lazy Americans and Brits are even to lazy to speak.

- speakin’ burn 2 many kal0rs, & we lik 2 b O.Bez!

"Most European countries say the mathematical way = 1999 (one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine) "

So do the British - we say this years as "two thousand and six."

"Yep, I say nineteen ninety nine. "

However, that guy has a point. Years are just the way of measuring how long it has been since the approximate time of the birth of Christ - 1999 is just a number, and should really be prounounced the normwal way - "one thousand, nine hundred and nine nine" as other languages also pronounce their years exactly like their numbers. For some reason, English speakers don't, although I think we used to do it in Britain - but then the Americans came along and gave us another ugly Americanism.

However, since 2000, we have pronounced the years like the numbers - "two thousand", "two thousand and one", etc. We don't pronounce them as "twenty hundred", "twenty oh one" etc. And again, I don't know why we have started pronouncing them just like normal numbers now.

I've never heard an American refer to this decade as the noughts or the noughties. We don't use the term nought much here in general. I have heard the decade referred to as the o's, but I don't know if this is in general use. Any other Americans out there who can comment?

These are not the Noughties.....they are most definitely the Naughties.

A hundred years ago "aught" was used in America. Not anymore.

I am from Lithuania and I can say that no Slavic language say 1999 as ( nineteen ninety nine ) we say years , cars , apples , everything like we say at mathematic class (one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine)

I was very shocked and confused when I visited my uncle in S. Carolina (USA) and they said (12 hundred 50 for a car ?)

To me is not correct !

In 2010, the pronunciation will be "twenty-ten". Until 2009, however, it will remain with "two thousand (and) ____". If you were referring to 1004, you might say "ten oh four", but not 2004, because "twenty oh four" is one extra syllable.

<<2006 in GERMAN is ZWEI TAUSEND UND SECHS. Two thousand and six!>>

Everyone I know says 'zwei tausend sechs', without the 'und'.

We say two thousand six in the US. No "and". We also are happy to say eleven hundred, fourteen hundred, etc. It's not mathematically inappropriate at all: 1400 is just as rationally thought of as fourteen hundreds (14 x 100) as it is one thousand, four hundred (1000 + 400). That's a basic rule of math.

The use of "aught" is uncommon in the US, but I get to use it every day: it's a common way of saying suture size -- 2-0 monocryl may be pronounced "two-oh monocryl" OR "two-aught monocryl". But that is a very specialized usage.

I'm pretty sure when we hit 2010, we will have our choice of saying "two thousand ten" OR "twenty-ten". But by the time we hit 2021, I'd lay serious money on a propensity to just say "twenty twenty-one."

I'm in. I'm going to be a twenty-ten and twenty-twenty-one girl all the way. And of course it's two thousand six here in America, as Uriel has stated. I've heard "oh-six" too, but less often.