There was a public debate leading up to the celebrations of the year 2000 as to whether the beginning of that year should be understood as the beginning of "the" new millennium. Historically, there has been debate around the turn of previous decades, centuries, and millennia. The issue arises from the difference between the convention of using ordinal numbers to count years and millennia, as in "the third millennium", or using a vernacular description, as in "the two thousands". The difference of opinion comes down to whether to celebrate, respectively, the end or the beginning of the "-000" year. The first convention is common in English-speaking countries, but the latter is favoured in, for example, Sweden ("tvåtusentalet", which translates literally as the "two thousands period").