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agraham
Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Location: Daegu, Korea
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 Posted: Wed May 18, 2005 10:58 pm Post subject: Talking about making plans... |
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I want to explain to my students about making plans, but I'm not really clear myself on some of the details. Tell me how you guys use 'next':
Imagine it's Tuesday the 17th.
I say "I'll meet you next Thursday." To you does this mean Thursday the 19th, this Thursday, two days from now, or Thursday the 26th, nine days from now?
If I said "I'll meet you next Wednesday." to me that means eight days from now. If I'd meant tomorrow I would have said tomorrow.
What If I said "I'll meet you next Monday." Surely that means six days from now rather than 13 days from now.
So the meaning of 'next' sometimes seems to mean 'the one coming up' and sometimes 'the one after the one coming up'.
How do you use 'next'?
A similar thing with weekends...
What did you do last weekend?
What did you do this weekend (last weekend)?
What are you doing this weekend (the weekend coming up)?
What are you doing next weekend (two weekends from now? or the one coming up?)?
What are you doing the weekend after next (three weekends from now? or two?)? |
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Swiss James
Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Location: Shanghai
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| Posted: Wed May 18, 2005 11:04 pm Post subject: |
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yeah it's a minefield- if I was making small talk whilst getting my regular Sunday night saline drip and said
"What are you doing next weekend?"
I would definitely mean the one starting up in 5 days time- but if it's said at any point in the following Mon-Fri, you need to clarify.
"Next Thursday" always means at least 7 (if today is Thursday) days away, but usually the following week's thursday. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Thu May 19, 2005 9:08 am Post subject: |
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What did you do last weekend?
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Have you ever noticed that in January Koreans will often say something about 'last year' meaning last month?
The common usage of 'next' and 'last' is pretty flexible in conversation. I think the context of the conversation clears up a lot of the confusion, but when it doesn't we specifically ask. This might be a good time to teach your students "Do you mean THIS week or NEXT week?" |
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zappadelta
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Thu May 19, 2005 2:21 pm Post subject: |
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| I always use "this" for talking about weekends and specific days for past and future, with the only difference being in the tense of the verb. |
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plokiju
Joined: 15 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Thu May 19, 2005 4:52 pm Post subject: |
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| To next always means during that day next week. So to me, next Thursday means the 26th. If I wanted the 19th, I would say 'this Thursday' or 'on Thursday.' I think that the one coming up is 'this' and the one after that is 'next.' If it's Thursday and you mean the upcoming Monday then I think it's okay to use next Monday but I think it's better to use 'this' because it's just more clear. |
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