A Year With Two Names

At the dawn of a new decade, there is no consensus for pronunciation of 2010, something that has been noted in other parts of the country.

Should it be pronounced as "two-thousand (and) ten" or "twenty ten?" The former is consistent with pronunciation with years of the past decade, while the later matches up to pronunciation of years from the 20^th century.

Patch interviewed people in Mount Kisco's Shopper's Park to find out from among those who volunteered to interview, and found a diverse sampling.

"Twenty-ten," said Kara Lenkeit of Croton-on-Hudson. So did Emilie Celeste, who is a fellow Croton resident and was with Lenkeit.

A group of three people from Armonk were in the opposite camp.

"I say 'two-thousand ten,'" said Alison Wolf.

"I would say 'two-thousand ten,' though, it comes out easiest," said Ian Reibeisen, who also said he is still getting used to it being a new year.

"I would say 'two-thousand and ten' just because it's a little more formal," said Charlie Cornelius.

But "twenty ten" won out with Mount Kisco resident Tom O'Brien, a local architect, because he said it sounded cooler. "

Molly Byrne of Ossining said she would probably pronounce it as "two-thousand and ten", because while she had not been conscious about which one to use, will go with the pronunciation that she is used to.

One group interviewed gave different answers.

Danny Lee of Mount Kisco went with "twenty ten," while Chrissy Casbarro of Pawling, NY said "two-thousand ten."

For the Vertucci family of Chappaqua there was a split. Renee, the mother, preferred "two-thousand and ten," while her son Matthew went with "two-thousand ten." But her daughter, Adrienne, used "twenty ten." 

While the pronunciation difference appears to be a disagreement only in the English language, one Mount Kisco resident, Francisco Serna, offered his take in Spanish. With partial translation assistance from Maria Serna, also of Mount Kisco – who went by "twenty ten" in English – he said he called it "dos mil diez," which translates to "two-thousand ten."

While there is no single way to pronounce the year, it appears to be a mere matter of preference. As the cliché goes: You say "to-may-to," I say "to-mah-to."