Monday Nov. 13th is specific and unambiguous. Other wise it is easily misunderstood.
This is because you have specified its not a certain train. If you just said " I am catching the next train" it would mean the next one to occur (or arrive).
This is similar to what I explained here:
As you see you have to specify the current instance for next to have meaning. If none is specified then we assume it is the next to occur.
You may assume it. I ask because I don’t assume it.
It makes absolutely no sense to argue over the matter. The phrase simply has different connotations to different people, and I think both versions acquit themselves perfectly adequately within their contexts.
You are quite right here. I assume it in all cases except with days. This is simply due to the fact that some people use “next” in a different way to how it is used elsewhere.
I always have to query if they are skipping a day in the timeline or not.
Actually here is one case Im unclear about. Say I meet my friends every saturday for baseball. We all go to drinks on monday night and as I am leaving I say
“Im heading home now, Ill see you at baseball next weekend”
Would you say
- “Ok see you then”
Or would you say - “Hey why will we not see you at baseball this weekend”
Why don’t we just table this for a while, and resume the discussion a week from next Thursday at 9 o’clock in the usual place?
You know what? It’s been 28 years, and I remembered it wrong. It’s “Monday week”.
That’s a great idea - given that anyone attending such a meeting will do so on a date based on their notion of what you mean, unanimity is inevitable (at any one of the meetings, that is).
While I agree with this statement in theory, in practice the differences cause numerous misunderstandings, as jsgoddess points out. I know I’ve had my share of confusion with friends that needed clarifying so that we showed up on the same day.
I suspect there is (in the US anyway) some sort of geographic pattern to the usage. Unfortunately, the Dialect Survey doesn’t seem to cover this topic.
Though I personally would use “next Monday” to mean “in 10 days” not “in three days”, I have come to the conclusion that the fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our ‘next’ but in our ‘this’.
I’d argue that “this Monday” is a misapplication of “this”, perhaps abbreviated from “this coming Monday”. But by misappropriating “this” to mean a Monday which is not “here”, we create a confusion about the use of “next”, which would more properly be applied.
Try telling your wife that your next wife is sexy and will keep her looks into old age. When you regain consciousness, try explaining to her lawyer that you meant “the closest, most proximate wife, the one right next to you” – namely her. It won’t fly because “this wife” isn’t subject to ambiguity. Only in special cases (e.g. a never-married fiance) where there is no possible ambiguity, could one say “this wife” and mean “an upcoming wife, not already in progress”
Similarly, when you tell your kids “Next time, you’ll get a whupping” (or in this age: “Next time, I’ll lower the minutes on your cellphone!”) you are clearly distinguishing it from “this time” --which although not the present is clearly still close enough for you to feel immediately peeved-- and “last time” when you didn’t say a word for fear of damaging their self-esteem (and besides, it was kind of cute at first). Try telling them that “this time” means “this coming time”, and you’ll end up raising Congresscritters.
I agree; what I think I was trying to say was that neither side in this argument will ever convince the other that its way is the right and proper way, because to both camps, their own way feels as natural as the other feels horribly alien.
Same thing with ‘and’ in spoken numbers, similar thing with date formats and possibly similar with commas and decimal points - they’re all conventions that are quite indelibly culturally ingrained, as well as somewhat arbitrary - arguing only tends to reinforce your opposite’s impression that you’re a lunatic. Greater awareness that differences of convention is achievable and desirable though, but homogeny just isn’t going to happen anytime soon.
When I use “this” and “next”, I tend to imply “week’s” in the statement.
For instance, today is Monday Nov 13th. “Next Monday” is Nov 20th, as in “next week’s Monday”. Therefore “next Tuesday” is the 21st as it is “next week’s Tuesday” and “next week’s Friday” is the 24th.
“This Friday,” meaning “this week’s Friday” is the 17th.
On Friday the 17th, Monday would be “this Monday” since it is within the 7 day span of a week.
Personally, I avoid all that and clarify by saying “Thursday” to mean the 16th such as, “I’ll call you on Thursday” and “a week from Thursday” to mean the 23rd, as in “In America, Thanksgiving is a week from Thursday.”
I’ve always used and understood “this” to designate the imminent day and “next” to designate the week following. When other people say “next,” I usually ask for clarification, though.
“The meeting is next wednesday.”
“Do you mean this coming wednesday or the wednesday after that?”
“NEXT wednesday.”
“Um…ok…thanks.”
Really, there’s no right answer. From my perspective, it just seems like people who say “next” when they mean “this” are being unnecessarily confusing. If you mean “this,” say “this.” No one ever gets confused by it.
I have never heard the “monday week” construction in my life. I had no idea such a convention even existed until reading this thread. It must be a regional thing
Well said.
By the way, I’m in the subset of the populace that refers to “this Monday” as “next Monday”. Drives my wife nuts. Especially in the middle of the week and I refer to the coming weekend as “next weekend”.
That is rediculous. You say if I mean “this” then say “this”. Why?
“This” does not fit what I am trying to express. I want to talk about the thursday in 3 days time. To me it is the “next” thursday to occur and is hence “next” thursday. It would feel strange to me to call it “this” thursday because “this” implies it is right here in front of me. I am typing at “this” keyboard right now in “this” room, but thats as far as it goes.
This is exactly what I do, although sometimes I’ll even go so far as to say the date, if I know it off-hand.