... LEO sagt:

the seventies also: 70s pl. = die Siebziger auch: 70er Pl.
the seventies also: 70s pl. = die Siebzigerjahre auch: siebziger Jahre, 70er Jahre, 70er-Jahre . . .

Fowler's says :

Letters, figure and abbreviations. All types were once normally written with ’s: two VC’s, the 1950’s, etc. Increasingly now the apostrophe is being dropped in the following types: B.Litts, MAs, MPs, QCs, the sixties, the 1960s.

The Oxford Style Manual says:

Numbers are made plural without an apostrophe both as words and figures: the 1960s, temperature in the 20s, twos and threes, in the Nineties

the '70s

at least that's our publishing style where I work

Oh, that's true; those examples don't mention that, do they? Elsewhere Fowler's mentions using an apostrophe in "the class of '61". If you're talking about the weather, obviously, then it's just the 70s.

apparently all are (have been) possible, Dude's version is also common AFAIK - the apostrophe replacing 19....

... naturally, the exemption from the above rule would be the very first century (A.D.) . . . ;-)

Some people even use "the 70ies" :-))

the exception of the rule? What do you mean, Mr. D?

... we start counting at year #1, going up to 99, followed by 100, don't we? . . .

at 999 we change to 1000, 1001 1002 etc.

1899 we changed to 1900, ... 1910, '20, '70 etc . . .

... got me ? . . . ;-))

#0: ...aber der Kunde besteht darauf, dass es "the 70's" heißen müsse.

This is one of those situations where you might be best advised to go along with what the customer says, even if it's against your own (better) judgment. ("The customer's always right" and all that ...)

@D: no, I meant what do you mean by exemption?

Make sure it's clear that your version is not a mistake, and theirs might be considered old-fashioned, and leave it up to them what they do with it.

@d: the 70s in the very first century (A.D. 70 - 79) . . .

LOL never mind.

Say 1970s if that's what you mean.

All are possible except the one mentioned in #7.

70s - modern
70's - older
'70s - optional, also generally older

*70ies - wrong, as it would imply repeating the last syllable

If the customer prefers the older form with apostrophe-S, which is the one I still tend to use myself, that's their right, though they might be interested to know how many editors now recommend against it. I have a vague recollection that Chicago may have changed its position on this one within the last few editions.

Pace dude's house style, my sense is also that the preceding apostrophe is fairly old-fashioned, since there are virtually no contexts in which one might confuse the hippie decade with warm temperatures or a decade in the first century.

Re: "Pace dude's house style":

LEO: 'pace' prep. = 'ohne jmdm. zu nahe treten zu wollen' . . .

@ # 16, of course 70ies is wrong. Therefore I said "some people", get it?

About 145,000 results (0.30 seconds)

Whew! Am glad to hear that the older form is still acceptable :-))

Some people even use "the 70ies" :-)) (#7)

... and "die 70iger Jahre".

#17, daddy: Kuhl, das muss ich mir merken! *kritzelt ins Vokabelheft*

@CM2DD: What edition of Fowler's are you quoting in #2? In the version I have (revised 3rd edition 1998 edited by Burchfield), things have moved on from
"Increasingly now the apostrophe is being dropped in the following types: B.Litts, MAs, MPs, QCs, the sixties, the 1960s."
to
"Though once commonly used in the plural of abbreviations and numerals (QC's, the 1960's), the apostrophe is now best omitted in such circumstances: MAs, MPs, the 1980s, the three Rs...".

Just thought it might have a bearing on how out-of-date the apostrophe is in the original post.

Hier meine (unmaßgebliche) Meinung:

'70s ist korrekt. Das Apostroph bezeichnet man auch als Auslassungszeichen, und hier wird das Jahrhundert ausgelassen. Das gibt es auch in der englischen Sprache.

Darüber hinaus wird es dieses Zeichen in der englischen Sprache auch noch zur Abgrenzung des "Genititiv-s" gebraucht.

Man könnte sich in diesem Zusammenhang also vorstellen: the 70's music (die Musik der '70er Jahre), aber nicht als die 70er Jahre (the 70s oder '70s oder 1970s)

Ich bin allerdings kein Sprachwissenschaftler und würde mich über Korrekturen freuen.

Trotzdem gilt natürlich: "Der Kunde hat immer Recht"

I would dispute that 70s is short for 1970s. You can say one or you can say the other. So for that reason alone '70s seems pointless. As for 70's, that was a typographical convention to separate letters and figures, which were somehow deemed to be squabbling children. That seems pretty pointless too.

AFAIC, '70s seems proper because the apostrophe indicates (a) missing letter(s)/number(s) here, much like it would in any other word, such as 'cause or s'pose, etc. The fact that you most likely wouldn't confuse the hippie decade with warm temperatures or a decade in the first century really has nothing to do with this, IMO.

Dauernd sieht man stadtweit Plakate, die Parties (auch gern Partys oder Party's) ankündigen, wo man mit z.B. 80iger/60ger-Jahre-Musik feiert, bzw. 80ies /90ties style and fashion usw. usf.
Alles falsch. Wieso können die Layouter und die Drucker nicht die einfachsten Dinge?

Und warum nicht wenigstens 8ies und 9ties? Ungewöhnlich, aber nicht so grundfalsch wie Obiges.

the 70's music (die Musik der '70er Jahre)
I would not use a possessive there. It is Seventies music, like reggae music or church music. You can also say music of the Seventies, but not the Seventies' music; logical as it may sound I've never seen it written that way before, or heard it said with a "the" that way round.

Actually I'd write 70s' music (I think).

#28 Without "the"? Music of seventies? Makes even less sense to me :-o

Two or three different things are getting confused here.

According to the Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.)

9.34: "In informal contexts the first two digits of a particular year are often replaced by an apostrophe (not an opening single quotation mark): the spirit of '76, the class of '06."

9.37: "Decades are either spelled out (as long as the century is clear) and lowercased or expressed in numerals. No apostrophy appears between the year and the s.

the nineties
the 1980s and 1990s (or, less formally, the 1980s and '90s)."

(As I see it, no apostrophe is required between the numeral and the s in such phrases as '70s music because the of is partitive, not possessive: music of the seventies).

Wie lässt sich denn eigentlich die schräge Wortschöpfung die Nullziger (gemeint sind damit die Jahre 2000 - 2010) übersetzen?

the noughties

Gibson, danke. Sehr richtig

Leseratz, interessant, dass du das fragst. Hier encore Chicago

"Note that the first decade of any century cannot be treated in the same way as other decades. “The 1900s,” for example, could easily be taken to refer to the whole of the twentieth century. To refer to the second decade (i.e., without writing “second decade”), an expression like “the 1910s” might be used if absolutely necessary, but “the teens” should be avoided. Note also that some consider the first decade of, for example, the twenty-first century to consist of the years 2001–10; the second, 2011–20; and so on. Chicago defers to the preference of its authors in this matter.

"the first decade of the twenty-first century (or the years 2000–2009)
the second decade of the twenty-first century (or the years 2010–19)"

Gibson's answer is perfect, really - for the FIRST ten/or nine, by some opinions (not to open that discussion, TOO; did the century begin on the first day of 2000 or 2001..? :)/ those ten years really have their perfect description. BUT - will we be 'allowed' in the next years, taking as a fact that we already ARE deep in 2001; to write: 'In the '10s?'. Or maybe 'In the 1910s'? That WAS 100 years ago, however that decade is special. Meaning, mentioned a lot, since The First Word War took place precisely in that decade... Just something to think about; really - no comments expected. AND: MANY OF YOU, IN MY HUMBLE OPINION
; ARE VERY, VERY RIGHT IN THEIR THINKING(S) :).

SORRY - the fourth 'row' above; '..deep in 2011', of course, not 2001. Thank you for Your understanding!

Just to avoid possible misunderstanding: #32 is a good and humorous play on words and should be used in that way only.

"The noughties" is mildly humorous, but is also the most commonly used name for that decade used in UK newspapers, etc. http://www.google.de/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4SNYK...

noughties(nought¦ies)
plural noun
chiefly British
the decade from 2000 to 2009. http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en...

CM: thanks for the tip. This is interesting, because the term seems to have originated in the U.S., yet it never caught on there (it is not listed in the Merriam-Webster dictionary online).

Here is the OED article, for those who are interested.

noughties, n., (with the). The decade from 2000 to 2009.

1989 W. SAFIRE in N.Y. Times Mag, 7 May: "That postcard touches on several possibilities suggested by scores of..third-millennium freaks... The Naughties was suggested by 40 readers."; 1990 R. J. A. SMITH in Independent, 19 Jan. "After the Eighties and the Nineties, what should we be calling the next decade? The Noughties?"; 1991 New Scientist 14 Sept.: "With regard to Richard Caie's question about suitable names for the next two decades..: considering the moral decline of society as a whole, the next decade must surely be the noughties."; 1996 New Scientist 11 May; "Rachel Oliver thought of a rather more serious difficulty which we will encounter in the year 2000. What will we call the new decade..? To get the ball rolling, Oliver suggests the ‘noughties’."; 2000 Evening Post (Wellington, N.Z.) (Electronic ed.) 1 July: "Ditch the mesh handbag, flick the World arm-bands, and dump the diamante butterfly hairclips: the ultimate celebrity-endorsed accessory for the discerning noughties woman is the bloke who is..Just Gay Enough."; 2001 Sunday Times 25 Mar.: "The Noughties celebrity face has a line-free forehead and bee-stung lips."

It seems pretty clear that--in North America, at least--it should not be used other than in a humorous or informal vein.