12 ms·

There’s still ambiguity in verbal language. On Sunday, if someone messages you “let’s do this next week” - do they mean “in the next 6 days” or “after 7 days fr

There’s still ambiguity in verbal language. On Sunday, if someone messages you “let’s do this next week” - do they mean “in the next 6 days” or “after 7 days from now”?

cercatrova 4y ago
Almost universally meant to mean in the next 6 days. Next week implies after 7 days.
- pantojax45 4y ago
  Slightly confused - don’t your two sentences contradict each other? Edit: also on a Friday, you can say next week and mean Monday (3 days later)
  - cercatrova 4y ago
    Sorry I read your post incorrectly. If I say, let's do something this week, it means up to and including Sunday. If I say next week, it means after the upcoming Sunday.
    - NorwegianDude 4y ago
      That makes sense for places where the week starts with Monday, but I guess this week means up to and including Saturday for Americans if it's actually normal that the week starts with Sunday. I was always under the impression that Americans basically agreed on that the week started on Monday, that the weekend ended with Sunday and that next week meant after Sunday. I thought Sunday as the first day in American calendars was a "yeah, it's stupid we do it like that, but I guess that is how it used to be back in the days" kind of thing.
      - cercatrova 4y ago
        Your 2nd paragraph is correct. No one actually thinks about when the week starts, it's almost universally understood to be Monday based even if the calendar says Sunday based.
      - cgriswald 4y ago
        I disagree with the sibling poster. Your first paragraph is correct. The week starts on Sunday. The weekend ends on Sunday. It only makes sense if you consider two adjoining endpoints of previous weeks to be one "weekend", which I've never known anyone not to do without thinking about it. Someone talking at work might mean something different, but I don't usually hear "next week" to mean Monday-Sunday in general conversation and we'd probably clarify for Sunday anyway. If someone says "The week of the 15th" and Sunday is the 15th, they mean the seven days from 15-21 not the seven days of 9-15. "Next week, maybe Sunday" means the next calendar Sunday as in Sunday-Saturday, not the Sunday after that as in Monday-Sunday. Anyone who says otherwise is selling calendars with a Monday start of the week. :)
- samatman 4y ago
  This isn't almost universal, in fact it's generally understood not to be the case, some of the time. If I say "next Wednesday" on Thursday, I mean the Wednesday of next week, not "this Wednesday" which was yesterday. "Next Weekday" of a weekday that's yet to happen, means one week after that day within this week. "Next Weekday" of a weekday that already happened, means the very next instance of that day in the calendar, "This Weekday" refers to the past. "Hey, this Tuesday was your presentation right? How did it go?" "We rescheduled for next Monday actually". <- this is obviously the Monday after the coming weekend.
  - cercatrova 4y ago
    You're right. I intuitively know and follow what you're saying, but I didn't put it into words correctly.
hunter2_ 4y ago
"Next" has terrible ambiguity, beyond the phrase "next week." If it's Monday and someone says "next Thursday" do they mean the coming Thursday (+3) or the one after that (+10)? I assume the latter, except when it's said by people who I know disagree! But even with people I don't put in that category, I'd hesitate to assume +13 days if they said "next Sunday" on Monday. More likely they mean +6 when it's so far out...
- mynameisvlad 4y ago
  “Next Thursday” vs “next week Thursday”. The former, for me, means +3 and the latter +10. I don’t think there’s ever been a time when someone I know has said the former but implied +10. Interesting to see so many people here who do interpret it that way.
  - hunter2_ 4y ago
    In my area it's fairly common to say, for example, "X happens every Thursday. Do you want to go this Thursday or next Thursday?" which is equivalent to +3 versus +10.
    - the_af 4y ago
      Same with my wife; she tells apart "this Thursday" and "next Thursday" in exactly the way you describe. I don't. Predictably, all sorts of confusions ensue.
- the_af 4y ago
  Tell me about it. My wife and I cannot agree on the meaning of "next" for almost anything, and we are Spanish speakers. For example, when driving, to her "turn at the next corner" means "the corner after the next", while to me it means "the corner the car is about to cross". What I call "the next corner" to her is "this corner". Same with days, of course. It drives me crazy!
  - eyelidlessness 4y ago
pitaj 4y ago
That kind of ambiguity is everywhere, though. If it's Friday, and I say "next Monday", those two days are close enough that you may need clarification - do I mean "this coming Monday" or "the Monday after that". Or another example for day 1 = Monday, if on Sunday I said "let's do that next week", you may need the same form of clarification.
- mynameisvlad 4y ago
  I don’t see any ambiguity in “next Monday”. It literally is saying the next day which is Monday. “Next week” on a Sunday is ambiguous because some people consider the new week to have started while others consider it to start the next day.
  - tpmoney 4y ago
    Human speech doesn't often work on just the literal meanings of words though, hence the ambiguity. Very very rarely at 10PM on a Sunday night does anyone mean "tomorrow" when they say "See you at the club next Monday". They usually don't mean that because we have the word "tomorrow" and that's more precise. Likewise, on a Friday afternoon most people (in my experience) don't say "Hey we're having a cook out next Sunday, want to come?" and mean the Sunday in exactly two days. Again, because the phrase "this Sunday" is available and more precise. In fact, I think in my experience "next X" almost always implies a full 7 days between now and the X. If my boss on Monday says "we need this in production next Friday" I don't normally take that to mean "we need this in production in the next 4 days.
    - samatman 4y ago
      There's a real ambiguity, but it isn't in the examples you gave. It's the case of saying "next Tuesday" on a Thursday, and meaning that no Tuesdays will pass before the date in question, versus saying "next Thursday" on a Tuesday, where a Thursday will happen before the date. That's because on Thursday, "this Tuesday" has already happened. But sometimes people will be thinking of "Tuesday after next" when they say "next Tuesday" on a Thursday, because they mean "the Tuesday after the coming Tuesday" and not "the Tuesday of next week".
djur 4y ago
The answer is the same on Saturday as on Sunday, so that doesn't really matter.

There’s still ambiguity in verbal language. On Sunday, if someone messages you “let’s do this next week” - do they mean “in the next 6 days” or “after 7 days from now”?

cercatrova 4y ago

Almost universally meant to mean in the next 6 days. Next week implies after 7 days.

pantojax45 4y ago
Slightly confused - don’t your two sentences contradict each other? Edit: also on a Friday, you can say next week and mean Monday (3 days later)
- cercatrova 4y ago
  Sorry I read your post incorrectly. If I say, let's do something this week, it means up to and including Sunday. If I say next week, it means after the upcoming Sunday.
  - NorwegianDude 4y ago
    That makes sense for places where the week starts with Monday, but I guess this week means up to and including Saturday for Americans if it's actually normal that the week starts with Sunday. I was always under the impression that Americans basically agreed on that the week started on Monday, that the weekend ended with Sunday and that next week meant after Sunday. I thought Sunday as the first day in American calendars was a "yeah, it's stupid we do it like that, but I guess that is how it used to be back in the days" kind of thing.
    - cercatrova 4y ago
      Your 2nd paragraph is correct. No one actually thinks about when the week starts, it's almost universally understood to be Monday based even if the calendar says Sunday based.
    - cgriswald 4y ago
      I disagree with the sibling poster. Your first paragraph is correct. The week starts on Sunday. The weekend ends on Sunday. It only makes sense if you consider two adjoining endpoints of previous weeks to be one "weekend", which I've never known anyone not to do without thinking about it. Someone talking at work might mean something different, but I don't usually hear "next week" to mean Monday-Sunday in general conversation and we'd probably clarify for Sunday anyway. If someone says "The week of the 15th" and Sunday is the 15th, they mean the seven days from 15-21 not the seven days of 9-15. "Next week, maybe Sunday" means the next calendar Sunday as in Sunday-Saturday, not the Sunday after that as in Monday-Sunday. Anyone who says otherwise is selling calendars with a Monday start of the week. :)
samatman 4y ago
This isn't almost universal, in fact it's generally understood not to be the case, some of the time. If I say "next Wednesday" on Thursday, I mean the Wednesday of next week, not "this Wednesday" which was yesterday. "Next Weekday" of a weekday that's yet to happen, means one week after that day within this week. "Next Weekday" of a weekday that already happened, means the very next instance of that day in the calendar, "This Weekday" refers to the past. "Hey, this Tuesday was your presentation right? How did it go?" "We rescheduled for next Monday actually". <- this is obviously the Monday after the coming weekend.
- cercatrova 4y ago
  You're right. I intuitively know and follow what you're saying, but I didn't put it into words correctly.

hunter2_ 4y ago

"Next" has terrible ambiguity, beyond the phrase "next week." If it's Monday and someone says "next Thursday" do they mean the coming Thursday (+3) or the one after that (+10)? I assume the latter, except when it's said by people who I know disagree! But even with people I don't put in that category, I'd hesitate to assume +13 days if they said "next Sunday" on Monday. More likely they mean +6 when it's so far out...

mynameisvlad 4y ago
“Next Thursday” vs “next week Thursday”. The former, for me, means +3 and the latter +10. I don’t think there’s ever been a time when someone I know has said the former but implied +10. Interesting to see so many people here who do interpret it that way.
- hunter2_ 4y ago
  In my area it's fairly common to say, for example, "X happens every Thursday. Do you want to go this Thursday or next Thursday?" which is equivalent to +3 versus +10.
  - the_af 4y ago
    Same with my wife; she tells apart "this Thursday" and "next Thursday" in exactly the way you describe. I don't. Predictably, all sorts of confusions ensue.
the_af 4y ago
Tell me about it. My wife and I cannot agree on the meaning of "next" for almost anything, and we are Spanish speakers. For example, when driving, to her "turn at the next corner" means "the corner after the next", while to me it means "the corner the car is about to cross". What I call "the next corner" to her is "this corner". Same with days, of course. It drives me crazy!
- eyelidlessness 4y ago

pitaj 4y ago

That kind of ambiguity is everywhere, though. If it's Friday, and I say "next Monday", those two days are close enough that you may need clarification - do I mean "this coming Monday" or "the Monday after that". Or another example for day 1 = Monday, if on Sunday I said "let's do that next week", you may need the same form of clarification.

mynameisvlad 4y ago
I don’t see any ambiguity in “next Monday”. It literally is saying the next day which is Monday. “Next week” on a Sunday is ambiguous because some people consider the new week to have started while others consider it to start the next day.
- tpmoney 4y ago
  Human speech doesn't often work on just the literal meanings of words though, hence the ambiguity. Very very rarely at 10PM on a Sunday night does anyone mean "tomorrow" when they say "See you at the club next Monday". They usually don't mean that because we have the word "tomorrow" and that's more precise. Likewise, on a Friday afternoon most people (in my experience) don't say "Hey we're having a cook out next Sunday, want to come?" and mean the Sunday in exactly two days. Again, because the phrase "this Sunday" is available and more precise. In fact, I think in my experience "next X" almost always implies a full 7 days between now and the X. If my boss on Monday says "we need this in production next Friday" I don't normally take that to mean "we need this in production in the next 4 days.
  - samatman 4y ago
    There's a real ambiguity, but it isn't in the examples you gave. It's the case of saying "next Tuesday" on a Thursday, and meaning that no Tuesdays will pass before the date in question, versus saying "next Thursday" on a Tuesday, where a Thursday will happen before the date. That's because on Thursday, "this Tuesday" has already happened. But sometimes people will be thinking of "Tuesday after next" when they say "next Tuesday" on a Thursday, because they mean "the Tuesday after the coming Tuesday" and not "the Tuesday of next week".

djur 4y ago

The answer is the same on Saturday as on Sunday, so that doesn't really matter.