Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: What will we call the next decade?

Si č poi avverata la "profezia" che leggo tra le faq? Come andrebbe
aggiornata?
["2001" will probably be called "two thousand and one", under the influence
of the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey"; but after that, people will probably
gradually switch to calling the years "twenty oh three", etc. What will we
call the decade 2000-2009 (comparable to "the eighties", "the nineties",
etc.), who knows?  Stay with us, and doubtless we'll all find out in good
time.]
Francesco.

 Si è poi avverata la "profezia" che leggo tra le faq? Come andrebbe

the zeros : )
or more likely "the first decade"

 or more likely "the first decade"
C'è una parola inglese più corretta per "decennio"? 
Decade è un periodo di dieci giorni.
 
-- 
oggi no, domani sì

 Decade č un periodo di dieci giorni.
Solo in italiano, non in inglese.
-- 
Mary


I have heard dates such as 1902 pronounced "nineteen aught two" in old
films, but it does not appear to be current in the US. Is it used in
the UK?
Perhaps it fell out of favor as the people who remembered the "aughts"
passed on.
Maybe we could revive it to refer to the current decade.
Joe from Massachusetts

 Decade è un periodo di dieci giorni.
Really, and what's a tenday? ;)
It's a false friend. "Dècade", in Italian, is a tenday. "Decade", in
English, is a "decennio".
Mind you, "tenday" is not common. Use "ten day" and "ten days".
Oh, BTW, "decade" in Italian means "decennio", too.
Oh, and for the non-Italians, "dècade" means "ten days period", but
"decàde" is the third singula person of the verb "decadere"
Sebastiano
-- 
Rory : I think I need some alone time. 

 Really, and what's a tenday? ;)
I've never heard the expression as a noun before, only an adjective ("a
ten-day period").
Is it used as a noun in the States?
-- 
Mary

 the UK?
Not nowadays - maybe in Dickens' time.
We say nineteen-oh-two.
"0" can also be pronounced as "nought" or "zero", but not in dates.
-- 
Mary

 Is it used as a noun in the States?
Nope. I though it was an old usage, but now I am pretty sure it's just
fantasy slang. :)
Sebastiano
-- 
George Jefferson : If I paid you to think, you could cash your check at the
penny arcade.
Florence Johnston : Where do you think I cash it now? 

reading fantasy books.
I think you'll find it's an (obvious) neologism used in some fantasy
books. You should be very careful about learning new words from
fantasy books, in the same way that I should be very careful about
learning new words from Stefano Benni or Montalbano books.
-- 
Adam Atkinson (
gh...@mistral.co.uk
)
"You know, I've gone to a lot of psychics, and they've told me a lot of
different things, but not one of them has ever told me 'You are an
undercover policewoman here to arrest me.'"

We say nineteen-oh-two.
I always tell people that "nineteen hundred and two" is correct too.
Is one or the other more usual? I'm pretty sure I hear both. Except in
the case "1900", of course, where only "nineteen hundred" is possible.
It's odd the way elementary to intermediate English textbooks often
seem not to tell students how to pronounce one-tenth of possible
dates.
Many of my students at La Sapienza (in the Science faculty...) were
basically incapable of reading out large numbers, too. English
teaching types must not think numbers and dates matter, because only
nasty maths people care about those things.
It's less surprising that many EFL students, even advanced ones, can't
read out fractions, calculations and formulae but I'd have thought
it's something people ought to learn sooner or later. (I'm probably
pretty poor at this in Italian, actually: I don't often have to talk
people through formulae on blackboards, though it has happened)


 learning new words from Stefano Benni or Montalbano books.
Yeah, I have to be careful. In this case I would have never used "tenday"
in an everyday conversation, but I though it was an old term, not a
neologism. 
I am also verry carreful when I learn new worrds from Pratchett books or
mapps. :)
Sebastiano
-- 
Kelso : (to Dr. Cox) I'm going to tell you the same thing I told the
comedian at that strip joint in Reno... I'm not here for the jokes. 

 days". Oh, BTW, "decade" in Italian means "decennio", too.
In effetti indicherebbe una decina di ogni cosa, ma 
essendoci già decennio perché far confusione con "dieci 
giorni" che non ha una parola sua? (decadì?)
Nel mio diz. decennio viene tradotto con decennium (pl. 
decennia), parola che immagino nessuno usi al di fuori 
delle facoltà di storia.


 Decade č un periodo di dieci giorni.
In English the correct word for "decennio" is "decade".
It also means a group of ten *anythings* but its common use is to mean 10
years.
-- 
Still on a temporary account. Now I've lost the DSL altogether.
Using DIALUP!

 delle facoltà di storia.
Immagini bene. Decennio è "decade".
Sebastiano
-- 
Sydney : Your dancers... suck. 

 use is to mean 10 years.
What is a "decennium"?


 What is a "decennium"?
A word that only exists in dictionaries.
-- 
Mary

 A word that only exists in dictionaries.
If it is there at least one person wrote it at least once.
:-)
