Correcting 4 digit year number pronunciations

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Jim Bretti
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Correcting 4 digit year number pronunciations

Post by Jim Bretti »

Some voices will pronounce year numbers as 4 digit numbers, like "One thousand seven hundred and seventy six" for 1776, or "two thousand and eleven" for 2011. You may need to add a pronunciation dictionary entries to have these year numbers pronounced as "seventeen seventy six" and "twenty eleven".

Since year numbers between 2000 and 2009 would normally not be changed, one way to handle is with two dictionary entries, one for handling year numbers earlier than 2000, and another for handling year numbers after 2009.

(1) Year numbers earlier than 2000.
In Pronunciation Dictionary Maintenance, under the Tools menu, add a new dictionary entry. Set the Text Matching dropdown to "Regular Expression", and the Pronounce Using dropdown to "Respell", then set the fields like this:

Regular Expression:
(\b1\d)(\d\d\b)

Respell:
$1 $2

Also, set the caption to something like Year numbers < 2000.

(2) Year numbers greater than 2009
Add a new dictionary entry, setting the Text Matching and Pronounce Using dropdowns as above. Use the following regular expression / respell:

Regular Expression:
(\b2\d)([1-9]\d\b)

Respell:
$1 $2

For the caption use something like Year numbers > 2009
Jim Bretti
NextUp.com
Jim Bretti
Posts: 1558
Joined: Wed Oct 29, 2003 11:07 am
Contact:

Re: Correcting 4 digit year number pronunciations

Post by Jim Bretti »

Courtesy of SFCurly, here are some more useful regular expressions related to dealing with year numbers:

1. Handle range of years separated by a dash, like 1991 - 99
\b(19|20)(\d{2,2})\s*-\s*(\d{2,2})\b
$1$2 to $1$3

2. Handle range of years separated by a dash, like 1991 - 1999
\b(19|20)(\d{2,2})\s*-\s*(19|20)(\d{2,2})\b
$1$2 to $3$4

3. Twenties, thirties, forties, etc.
['`’]([2-9]0)['`’]*s*
$1's

4. Pronounce year numbers like 1905 as 19 oh 5
\b(16|17|18|19)0([1-9])\b
$1 o $2

5. Pronounce year numbers like 1991 as 19 91
\b(16|17|18|19)([1-9]\d['`’]*s*)\b
$1 $2

6. Pronounce year numbers like 1900 as 19 hundred
\b(16|17|18|19)00\b
$1 hundred

7. Pronounce year numbers like 1900's as 19 hundreds
\b(16|17|18|19)00['`’]*s\b
$1 hundreds

8. Pronounce year numbers like 1991 as 19 91
\b(16|17|18|19)([1-9]\d)\b
$1 $2

9. Handle year numbers greater than 2010, pronounce 2011 as 2000 eleven
\b20([1-9]\d['`]*s*)\b
2000 $1

10. Handle year numbers between 2001 and 2009, pronounce 2009 as 2000 nine.
\b200([1-9]['`]*s*)\b
2000 $1
Jim Bretti
NextUp.com
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