Not words this week, but something about dates, or more specifically years. The beginning of the millennium is tricky for English speakers, because for them the typical way of SAYING the years is in pairs of double-figure numbers. The end of the century was easy enough, because for 1999 everyone said "nineteen ninety-nine" (nobody said "one thousand nine hundred [and] ninety-nine").

Then came the year 2000 ("two thousand") - remember the kerfuffle about the computer clocks changing over?? Then people continued saying "two thousand [and] one, two, three", and so on, because those numbers don't look like pairs of double-figure numbers (2001 to 2009). But what's going to happen in 2010? I think people are going to start saying "twenty-ten" rather than "two thousand [and] ten", because it's quicker and easier, it reflects what the number itself looks like, and it returns to the typical English way of saying the years.