Saying stuff like "the seventeen hundreds" works in English, but it doesn't necessarily work in other languages. In Dutch that would be "de jaren zeventienhonde

Saying stuff like "the seventeen hundreds" works in English, but it doesn't necessarily work in other languages. In Dutch that would be "de jaren zeventienhonderd", which sounds like crap compared to "de achtiende eeuw". > because they want to sound clever Citation needed. I've never considered "nth century" to be a product of trying to sound clever.