# When was last summer? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 21, 2017, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976 "2017-12-21T03:33:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976/21 "2017-12-21T16:07:05Z")
I think the phrasing is inherently ambiguous and there is no one right answer to the poll. That said, I voted 2016 since that’s what my mind went to. But in real life, if it mattered, I would have sought clarification. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976/22 "2017-12-21T16:11:03Z")
When was last night? 2 days ago? No. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976/23 "2017-12-21T16:27:24Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Same here. “Last summer” is “last year summer.” I mean, it’s contextual, but I would never say “last summer” to refer to this past summer. Just like, generally in my dialect, next Wednesday means “next week Wednesday.” If it’s a Monday, “next Wednesday” is _not_ the upcoming Wednesday. Similiary, “last Wednesday” is “last week Wednesday.” If it’s Friday and you ask me about what I did “last Wednesday,” it would never occur to me that you are talking about two days ago. The question would be “would did you do on Wednesday?” or “what did you do this past Wednesday” or even “what did you do this Wednesday.” But NOT “What did you do last Wednesday?” But, since this is not a universal understanding, it’s best to disambiguate. Agreed. I use “this past” and “this coming” most of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976/24 "2017-12-21T19:35:55Z")
From the perspective of Dec 2017: “I went to the Bahamas last summer.” - 2017 “I am going to the Bahamas this summer.” - 2018 From the perspective of June 2017: “I went to the Bahamas last summer.” - 2016 “I am going to the Bahamas this summer.” - 2017 “Last summer” was the most recent complete summer. It has to be finished. Otherwise, it’s “this summer”. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976/25 "2017-12-21T20:47:15Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > “Last month” would clearly be November. “Last November” would clearly be (in my dialect) November 2016. I agree with this. “Last summer” would make me think 2016. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976/26 "2017-12-21T20:53:00Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > 2017 > > Last summer means the most recent summer. > > Last July I would have said 2016 because the current summer was still active. So in October 2017, your would refer to the summer of 2017 as “last summer”? I answered the poll too quickly. As of today, 2017 is “this past summer” and 2016 is “last summer”. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976/27 "2017-12-21T20:55:57Z")
When was the last breakfast you ate? Yesterday? No, it was this morning. Sure, if you didn’t eat breakfast this morning your answer will be different, but if you did, it doesn’t matter how long ago you ate breakfast prior to today, the last breakfast you ate was this morning and not some earlier date. Now I wouldn’t make a big deal out of this. Some people think for some reason that last summer was in 2016. They are free to hold that opinion. They’re just wrong, that’s all. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976/28 "2017-12-21T20:57:44Z")
ISTM the most logical interpretation of “last” is “previous”. “Last night” is the previous night, “last month” currently means November, and “last summer” currently means the summer that ended last September, 2017. “Last year” of course was 2016, but that just follows the same logic of “previous” and has nothing to do with the meaning of those other things. Of course the language has no end of quirks, about which, as I have often said, I could care less, or my head would literally explode. 😉 So “last summer” means whatever the majority of native English speakers want it to mean, but I’m pretty sure the majority would mean what I just described. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976/29 "2017-12-21T21:15:21Z")
I’ll give you the answer next summer. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976/30 "2017-12-21T21:38:18Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > ISTM the most logical interpretation of “last” is “previous”. “Last night” is the previous night, “last month” currently means November, and “last summer” currently means the summer that ended last September, 2017. “Last year” of course was 2016, but that just follows the same logic of “previous” and has nothing to do with the meaning of those other things. > > Of course the language has no end of quirks, about which, as I have often said, I could care less, or my head would literally explode. 😉 So “last summer” means whatever the majority of native English speakers want it to mean, but I’m pretty sure the majority would mean what I just described. For me, I think the difference might be that this month is the month we’re in and last month was the previous month. But we’re not in a summer (at least in the US), so “this summer” does not have an obvious meaning for me. Same with “this Wednesday” (though I would never EVER refer to today as “this [dayoftheweek].” Today is NOT “this Thursday.”) If you can be between the time, like you can be between summers or between Wednesdays, determining when to say “this” or “last” or “next” feels harder. That’s why I use “this past” and “this coming” to be clear when it might not be clear from context. At work, I try to include dates to be clearest. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976/31 "2017-12-21T21:42:28Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > 2016, since it was last year. For 2017, I would say “this past summer.” It’s this year’s summer, but now it’s over. Wow! The right answer on the first response, and it only took 10 minutes. It even includes the extra info about the summer from the current year being “this past summer.” Which only makes sense since the summer from last year is last summer and the summer from next year is next summer. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976/32 "2017-12-21T22:10:42Z")
> [@wonky](#): > > For me, I think the difference might be that this month is the month we’re in and last month was the previous month. But we’re not in a summer (at least in the US), so “this summer” does not have an obvious meaning for me. Same with “this Wednesday” (though I would never EVER refer to today as “this [dayoftheweek].” Today is NOT “this Thursday.”) If you can be between the time, like you can be between summers or between Wednesdays, determining when to say “this” or “last” or “next” feels harder. That’s why I use “this past” and “this coming” to be clear when it might not be clear from context. At work, I try to include dates to be clearest. You’re right that “this summer” is a bit vague if one is not actually in summer, but I don’t see that as being relevant. To me “this past summer” is semantically identical to “last summer”. > [@JKilez](#): > > Wow! The right answer on the first response, and it only took 10 minutes. It even includes the extra info about the summer from the current year being “this past summer.” Which only makes sense since the summer from last year is last summer and the summer from next year is next summer. No, the wrong answer on the first response, and the right answer provided in the current 73% to 26% polling result. As noted, “this past summer” is not “extra information”, it means exactly the same thing as “last summer”. Any other interpretation makes no sense and neither does your last sentence. At this point in time, winter 2017, **the next summer we are about to have** is, obviously, “next summer”. The fact that it won’t happen until the calendar year changes is totally irrelevant. It’s the next one, period. In the same way, **the last summer we experienced** is, obviously, “last summer”. Whether it happened on the same calendar year we’re currently in is totally irrelevant. It was the last one, period. It’s all about the immediately prior summer and the immediate future one. It has nothing to do with years. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976/33 "2017-12-21T22:25:35Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > You’re right that “this summer” is a bit vague if one is not actually in summer, but I don’t see that as being relevant. It’s relevant to how I think about the question and why certain examples seem to cut one way for me, while others cut another way. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976/34 "2017-12-21T22:32:43Z")
Since we’re in late fall, about to head into winter here in a few days, “last summer” was this year, 2017. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976/35 "2017-12-21T23:32:01Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > When was the last breakfast you ate? Yesterday? No, it was this morning. Sure, if you didn’t eat breakfast this morning your answer will be different, but if you did, it doesn’t matter how long ago you ate breakfast prior to today, the last breakfast you ate was this morning and not some earlier date. > > Now I wouldn’t make a big deal out of this. Some people think for some reason that last summer was in 2016. They are free to hold that opinion. They’re just wrong, that’s all. So when was last November? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2017, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976/36 "2017-12-21T23:48:21Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Similiary, “last Wednesday” is “last week Wednesday.” If it’s Friday and you ask me about what I did “last Wednesday,” it would never occur to me that you are talking about two days ago. What if it’s Saturday at 11:30 pm and I’m calling you from a different time zone? ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2017, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976/37 "2017-12-22T00:15:58Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > At this point in time, winter 2017, the next summer we are about to have is, obviously, “next summer”. The fact that it won’t happen until the calendar year changes is totally irrelevant. That is where you are wrong again. The calendar year is completely relevant as while we are in winter of 2017, “next summer” is the summer of 2018. Once we are in the spring of 2018, however, it becomes “this coming summer,” and “next summer” is the one that happens in 2019. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2017, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976/38 "2017-12-22T00:23:17Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > 2016, since it was last year. For 2017, I would say “this past summer.” It’s this year’s summer, but now it’s over. Exactly this. ---
**Author:** ![Jake\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Jake\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake_Jones)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2017, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976/39 "2017-12-22T05:23:03Z")
> [@Heracles](#): > > You’re aware that your last sentence isn’t even unanimous with your first? 😃 I was not, but I appreciate the irony. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2017, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976/40 "2017-12-22T11:58:02Z")
Well, whichever it was, I’ve got an alibi. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-was-last-summer/804976.md?page=3)