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At least in American English “next to best” would mean second whereas “next best thing” means something likely to be the best thing in the near future and it’s
by tuckerman 2y ago
At least in American English “next to best” would mean second whereas “next best thing” means something likely to be the best thing in the near future and it’s a very common idiom.
- phone_book 2y agoi am american and think "next best thing" means second best. maybe "next big thing" would be better but is a bit generic
- stoneman24 2y agoHow about “next favourite thing”
- corobo 2y agoDo you not have sentence structures along the line of "I wanted the premium model but it was out of my budget so I went for the next best thing"? I get we're trying to go for "next [best thing]" but yeah I (also UK) read it as "[next best] thing" and can't think of any examples where I'd read it as the former
- ImPostingOnHN 2y agoI think you might be referring to the common american english idiom "next big thing", as "next best thing" means 2nd best in american english as well. Note that "next bigGEST thing" also means the 2nd biggest thing.
- mathgeek 2y agoThis is the common usage in my experience (US).
- silisili 2y agoTo jump in on the confusion, I'm American and have seen it used both ways, completely dependent on context. When I read the original comment I understood it as 'next thing that we all think is best' rather than 'second best.' But after reading the comments and thinking on it, I realize it's probably used more often in the context of 'second best.'
- Gormo 2y agoAnother American here -- never heard "next best" meaning anything other than second-best to what you're currently looking at. "Next big thing" is commonly used and unambiguously means what's intended here.
- yyuugg 2y agoIn American English "next best thing" means second best. It is used to suggest an alternative when you can't get what you want. "Don't have Coke, maybe get a Pepsi, it's the next best thing." "Next big thing" means upcoming good thing.
- _heimdall 2y agoI've seen it used both ways, "next best thing" is one of those phrases at least in American English that is highly context-dependent.
- lolinder 2y agoWhich still makes it a bad choice for marketing copy. They want something that isn't likely to be misinterpreted, and I've never seen that phrase used to mean "next big thing", only "second best".
- Zandikar 2y agoAs an American, I can't recall "The next best thing" ever meaning "second best' but rather the up and coming latest and greatest thing. Big country though, could be a regional thing.