Do You Mean This Thursday or Next Thursday ?

The Problem with THIS and NEXT.

By Randy Ross

Previous, This and Next are words used to qualify the proximity or location of adjacent, similar things. If you are reading a book, the Previous Page, This Page and the Next Page are useful terms for referencing page locations. Previous and Next are used throughout Web Pages on the Internet to move you off the page you are viewing. Using Previous, This and Next is clear with similar, adjacent things, like pages in a book. Trying to identify a particular Day of the Week or Month of the Year using This or Next, will cause confusion. When used with words like Monday, where six other days pass before Monday arrives again, or February, where 11 other months pass before February arrives again, you may not identify the day or month you have in mind. Each person, depending on their environment, upbringing, personality and state of mind, may communicate an incorrect reference by selecting these words in an attempt to identify a Day of a Week or a Month of a Year. Using Previous, This and Next when the items are not similar nor adjacent, causes problems. Let me explain.

The phrases This Year and Next Year are never confused. Everyone knows when This Year ends and Next Year begins. Years are similar and adjacent.

The phrases This Month and Next Month are clear distinctions, not open to much misinterpretation. Everyone knows when This Month ends and Next Month begins. Months are similar and adjacent.

The phrases This Week and Next Week have a unique problem causing confusion. The reason is caused by the fact people do not agree on the starting and ending day of the week. So, using the terms This and Next can be misinterpreted. Depending on the current day of the week and if you believe the weeks starts on Monday, Sunday or Saturday you may communicate an incorrect idea. Using This Week and Next Week can have people showing up at restaurants a week early or a week late, missing an event by a week, etc. But, I will save diving into the “Week” discussion for another time. Let’s move on to Days of the Week.

The phrases This Day and the Next Day, are phrases rarely used, but leave no room for confusion. Everyone knows when This Day ends and the Next Day begins. Days are similar and adjacent.

The heart of the problem is using the terms This and Next for the non-similar, nonadjacent Days of the Week. Let me illustrate with an example.

Imagine it is Monday. If you have trouble imagining it is Monday, do not continuing reading until Monday. On second thought, if you can’t imagine it is Monday, perhaps you shouldn’t read the rest.

So, imagine it’s Monday, the fifth day of the month, and someone says to you, “…call me next Sunday”. When would you call? Most people would call on Sunday, the eleventh day of the month. Hardly anyone would wait until Sunday, the eighteenth day of the month. If you didn’t like the person, you may not call them at all. For more information on this case, please read “Ignoring People Asking You To Call On Next Sunday”, one of my other papers.

Imagine the same situation, Monday the fifth, and you hear, “…call me this Sunday”. Now what will you do? Some people will panic and think, “This Sunday was yesterday”. Other people will call on Sunday the eleventh. These are the two groups of people my paper addresses. If you fall into a different response group, stop reading and watch some TV. Most people, on Monday, would not say, “…call me this Sunday”, but I use the phrase to illustrate the point. Now, if it is still Monday and you start bring the “call me” day closer, you start to see the confusion build. Let’s look at the other extreme.

Imagine it is Monday, the fifth, and you hear, “…call me this Tuesday.” or “…call me next Tuesday”. The clever readers understand these to be the same thing. “Why”, the non-clever readers ask? A small group of readers have already determined I must be mental. The very next Tuesday to come along is, tomorrow, Tuesday the sixth of the month. However, some people would argue, Next Tuesday is, in fact, Tuesday the thirteenth. Even the people, like me, who believe This and Next always mean the same day, when used to reference a future day, can understand the problem caused using This and Next on a Monday to identify a Tuesday. So, let’s look at a Thursday for clarification.

Imagine it is Monday, the fifth of the month, and you hear “…call me this Thursday.” Or “…call me next Thursday”. Some of you will say “this” means the eighth and “next” means the fifteenth. The people on my side will say, these both reference the same day, Thursday, the eighth. And there is a small group, still reading, who thinks I have way too much time on my hands.

Here is the reason This Thursday and Next Thursday refer to the same day. On Monday, the fifth of the month, you hear, “…the next time you call, I’ll tell you about my new car”. You plan to call on Thursday, the eighth of the month. You will hear about the new car, because Thursday is the Next time you will call. The Next time you call will be This Thursday. Therefore, This and Next refer to the same day.

Conclusion:

Never use This and Next referring to a certain Day of the Week without clarifying the date. Or, only talk to people who think like you.

….Don’t forget to call somebody next Thursday.