Thread: how to write 1980 in letters

Hi! I have to write 1980 in letters in a birth certificate.

Is it one thousand, nine hundred and eighty or nineteen hundred and eighty?

Apparently back in the day, it used to be written like one thousand, nine hundred and eighty, but nowadays the correct form is nineteen eighty.

Hi reminder!

What about "... (born in) nineteen eighty"?

Would that be a possibility too or is it one of those two options only for birth certificates?

Hi!

I would go with the second option. In fact, I would also consider nineteen eighty.
You don't usually hear years being pronounced as "one thousand..." so I would not use that one.

Is spelling it out really necessary?

Originally Posted by solg

Hi!

I would go with the second option. In fact, I would also consider nineteen eighty.
You don't usually hear years being pronounced as "one thousand..." so I would not use that one.

Is spelling it out really necessary?

You know, i thought nobody ever wrote it like "One thousand, nine hundred..." but I actually found it was used in legal contexts. Not anymore though.

That's it, though, isn't it?

It sounds really old-fashioned. And so does "nineteen hundred and eighty". If you take it one step further you could even say "in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty".

I know that sometimes it's necessary for legal documents and the like, but still... Does anybody know a reliable style guide we could go to?

Yes, I think for years we write them in group of two digits, in this case: Nineteen eighty.
And I think we only write the numbers full in letters for checks or financial figures if I am not wrong lol.

So it goes in terms of two digits

Formal language is quite different from colloquial phrases, but still both keep this pattern of two digits, yes.