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Years, Decades, Centuries – Let’s talk about time!

So, where are we in time? This can be a bit tricky because we count time in millenniums, centuries, decades, years, months, days (and hours, minutes and seconds).

• 1 millennium = 10 centuries = 1000 years
• 1 century = 10 decades – 100 years
• 1 decade = 10 years = 3652 days
• 1 year = 12 months = 365 days

When talking about time, we use the terms B.C. and A.D., but what do they mean? They indicate the year and century time division within the Christian era, so  B.C. is ‘Before Christ’, and A.D. is ‘After Christ’. You will also see the terms BCE (‘Before Common/Christian Era’) and CE (‘Common/Christian Era’).

Exercise 1:  Centuries Challenge!

Complete the timeline below, e.g. Eight hundred and seven A.D. = 807 A.D.

• Thirty-five B.C.
• Fourteen ninety-two
• Seventeen seventy-six
• Nineteen ‘oh’ five
• Two thousand and eight

Right now, we are living in the 21^st century, but this year is actually 2024, and the year 2124 will be in the 22^nd Century. That’s why there was such a lot of debate at the turn of the century – how to say end of the century and beginning of the millennium dates correctly?

• 31^st of December 1999 – thirty-first of December nineteen ninety-nine
• 1^st of January 2000 – first of January two thousand

While some languages use Roman numerals to order the centuries, in English, we always count centuries in ordinal numbers. These rank the numbers in order and are very easy to remember when you recognise the pattern.

1. First = 1^st
2. Second = 2^nd
3. Third = 3^rd

And after that everything is ‘th’

4. Fourth = 4^th ; Fifth = 5^th ; Sixth = 6^th ; Seventh = 7^th ; Eighth = 8^th ; Ninth = 9^th ; Tenth = 10^th

We can talk about the years in several different ways. For example,

• The Alhambra in Spain was built between the 13^th and 15^th centuries (e.g. between 1238 and 1492).
• The Renaissance period was between 1400 and 1600 / fourteen hundred and sixteen hundred.
• The 20^th Century started in 1900 / nineteen hundred.

While easy to write in numbers, the years can be difficult to say accurately in words. For example: 706; 1500; 1945; 2000; 2009; 2012; 2024! So many numbers – even advanced level learners often make mistakes!

In English, the years are normally divided into two parts so the easiest way to pronoun the dates is to say the first two numbers and then the last two numbers.

1984 is divided into 19 + 84 and you would say nineteen eighty-four

1492 = 14 + 92 = fourteen ninety-two

1066 = 10 + 66 = ten sixty-six

And then we got to the new millennium and things changed a little, starting with the year 2000 = two thousand. However, for the years 2001-2010, the most common way of saying the years is two thousand + number. Let’s look at some examples.

2000 = two thousand  

2001 = two thousand and one (UK) / two thousand one (USA)

2005 = two thousand and five (UK) / two thousand five (USA)

For the years after 2010, you may hear different alternatives, for example

2012 = twenty twelve

2018 = twenty eighteen

2024 = twenty twenty-four

There are other alternatives because when the year ends in a number between 01 and 09, for example, 1802, then the last part of the number is pronounced as the name of the letter ‘oh’ + number,

807 = eight oh seven

1802 = eighteen oh two

2005 = twenty oh five

Exercise 2:  Match the years, dates, and words.

And be careful with pronunciation e.g. sixteen and sixty, or nineteen and ninety.

	Years		Years in words
1	2000	A	Ten sixty-six
2	21st  January 1982	B	Thirty-second of March twelve hundred
3	2009	C	Nineteen forty-five
4	1600	D	Seven hundred and six / Seven oh six
5	1066	E	Two thousand
	1945	F	Twenty-first of January nineteen eighty-two
6	2024	G	Twenty twelve
7	1492	H	Two thousand and nine / Twenty oh nine
8	32nd March 1200	I	Sixteen hundred / The sixteen hundreds
9	706	J	Fourteen hundred and ninety-two
10	2012	K	Twenty twenty-four

In British English, dates are usually written:

25-06-2024 (day – month – year).

In American English dates are written:

06-25-2024 (month – day – year).

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Answer key:

Exercise 1:

1. Thirty-five B.C.
2. Eight hundred and seven A.D.
3. Fourteen ninety-two
4. Fifteen hundred
5. Seventeen seventy-six
6. Eighteen eighty-eight
7. Nineteen-oh=five
8. Two thousand
9. Two thousand and eight
10. Two thousand and twenty-four

Exercise 2:  Match the years, dates, and words.

	Years		Years in words
1	2000	A	Two thousand
2	21st  January 1982	B	Twenty-first of January nineteen eighty-two
3	2009	C	Two thousand and nine / Twenty oh nine
4	1600	D	Sixteen hundred / The sixteen hundreds
5	1066	E	Ten sixty-six
	1945	F	Nineteen forty-five
6	2024	G	Twenty twenty-four
7	1492	H	Fourteen hundred and ninety-two
8	32nd March 1200	I	Thirty-second of March twelve hundred
9	706	J	Seven hundred and six / Seven oh six
10	2012	K	Twenty twelve