And I thought that it was my aging ears!
Especially over the last 5 years I have noticed this problem growing, and I think it is more due to people drifting back to their natural accents instead of using the strict requirements of the book.
The phonetic numerals were carefully designed so as to be only dependent on the vowel sounds and not the consonents, apart from 'zero', which I have never heard poorly stated or misunderstood. But the 2,3 ambiguity is so often a cause for correcting read backs, and potentially a safety issue - QNH 1020 v 1030 is 300ft!
UN = 1, OO = 2, EE = 3, OR =4, short I =6, short E =7,
long A =8.
As said earlier EYE could be 5 or 9, so we have fiFe, and ninER.
When did you last hear either of these spoken properly?
Perhaps if AlanM or SATCO is on this he could comment from ATC.
Mike.