UKH

When do people mean by Next Weekend, there seems to be some confusion, possible regional.

If you think it means the next weekend that will arrive (the 13th/14) then click 'LIKE'

If you think that it means the weekend after (as the 13th/14th is 'this weekend') then click 'DISLIKE'.




Being from Devon, we always used the second meaning, but I now never use the phrase as it seems to be ambiguous.

In reply to Dan Arkle:

Doesnt it depend on the day of the week eg saturday/sunday/monday/maybe tuesday then its the 13/14. Else might be the following weekend.

In reply to Dan Arkle:

Just had this conversation with the missus.

Today is Tuesday.

"Wednesday" means tomorrow...

"This wednesday" also means tomorrow

"This coming wednesday" also means tomorrow

"Next wednesday" means a week tomorrow.

I think it's a northern thing...I'm from Sunderland.

In reply to Dan Arkle:

I'd say 'next weekend' if I was using the term during a weekend. For 13-14th I'd say 'this weekend', assuming I were talking today, or on any other day before Saturday 13th.

In reply to ThunderCat:




I would agree with that, though next weekend would mean the next weekend we come to i.e. 13th/14th.

This might be a northern thing to I'm from Hartlepool.

In reply to ThunderCat:

I'm from Sheffield, but that just strikes me as logical, re days of the week. I think I see 'this weekend' as being the one connected to the week one is in, and 'next weekend' as being the one connected to next week (the week with 'next Wednesday' in). I wonder if the northern way of being less free with words possibly translates into a literalness of thinking for week days (and different things)?

So long as people are mutually understanding, I don't suppose it matters.

In reply to krikoman:



Nah, in my mind "Next weekend" means 20th / 21st.

"This weekend" means 'this coming weekend"..."next weekend" kind of means "the next weekend after that"

Bloody monkey hangers...

In reply to Dan Arkle:

So far its almost a 50:50 split, so you definitely don't have mutual understanding unless you have defined terms with someone.

In reply to ThunderCat:


Wasn't one of your relatives, was it?

In reply to Dan Arkle:

As it's still early in the week I would say 13th. If it was Friday onwards I would say we were at "this weekend" so then next weekend would be the next one.

In reply to Dan Arkle:

This weekend could just as easily mean last weekend as next weekend.

"What did you do this weekend?"

So next weekend means the 13th/14th as far as I am concerned

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus:


The weekends either side of weekdays are 'This weekend's, just depends how one refers to them.

edit: from Yorkshire/Manchester.

In reply to Dan Arkle:

I think I tend to talk about the nearest upcoming weekend as "the weekend", differentiated from the weekend just past by word tense.

"What did you do on the weekend?" (what happened on the 6/7 August)

"What are you doing on the weekend?" (what will happen on 13/14 August).

I tend to use the phrase "the weekend after next" as well, and meaning the second nearest upcoming weekend by that.
I think I sometimes mix up "next weekend", depending on how close the nearest upcoming weekend is - so on Friday, next weekend might mean 8 days away. But on Monday/Tuesday, next weekend means 3-4 days away.

Bloody English - what a crap language.

In reply to Dan Arkle:

And here was me thinking I was the only one to grind my teeth and roll my eyes over this one! As someone who HATES ambiguity (unless it's deliberate) I'm always wondering what my daughter is meaning when she says "this weekend". Now I'm wondering if it's a generational difference rather than a geographical one.
If next weekend is to mean anything beyond the next weekend which is going to happen, I wonder on which day of the week next weekend becomes this weekend.

In reply to SenzuBean:


That'll be the 27/28th

In reply to Dan Arkle:

I agree with the O.P.'s opinion but long since accepted that, to most people, "Next weekend" makes no sense and cannot be used in practice, just like "half-eight" makes no sense in English - anyone from an English colony or England will translate the latter as 08h30 and anyone from a Dutch, German or continental background or colony will translate it as "half way through the eighth hour" which means 07h30 - quite logically.

In reply to krikoman:


I'm taking the fifth on this one...

In reply to Dan Arkle:

I think it is ambiguous because a weekend is on the boundary between two weeks.

A much clearer cut distinction is between, say, "this October" and "next October".

In reply to Dan Arkle:
On a related note, what does it mean to say that "a meeting is being moved forward"? Whether you think this means the meeting will be earlier of later is supposed to correspond to your concept of time - do you see yourself as stationary with time moving, or as time stationary with you moving through it?

In reply to Robert Durran:

Define what Time is and I'll let you know!

In reply to Lusk:


I was reminded about all this reading Jim Al Khalili's book "Paradox" last week. It seems that time is probably just there, like space, with nothing moving through anything.......... the puzzle is why time seems, unlike space dimensions, to have a direction.

Personally I picture time as a fixed expanse, with me riding the crest of a wave which sweeps through it, colouring it from grey to white as it goes!

In reply to Dan Arkle:

This weekend is this coming weekend we are about to get to.

Next weekend, is the weekend after this weekend.

Someone mentioned time as well, I think it's similar confusion when someone says "the back of 9" many an argument had about what qualifies as the back of an hour.

In reply to Xharlie:

It's not logical. What is logical is 30 mins is half an hour.

8:30 is half way between 8 and 9. Thus half 8. It makes perfect sense. Half way through the eighth hour like you said.
Not like these Europeans with their half way to the next hour. Makes no sense.
This weekend is the weekend coming and the next weekend is the weekend after this coming weekend, which is this weekend.

Of course it makes sense.

In reply to Bootrock:



That would make it 7:30, since the first hour is surely between midnight and 1am, so maybe not quite as logical as you think.

Next Weekend, for me, is the one after This Weekend, which tends to start having meaning sometime around Tuesday or Wednesday. Before that Next Weekend is the next one to occur.

In reply to john arran:



But it's got an 8 in it.

In reply to Rog Wilko:


It's possibly not generational, as a friend a year older than me corrected me, or rather reinforced which weekend she ment in the kind of way which suggested it was obvious, when I didn't know which one she ment. She called the weekend at the end of the week we were in 'next weekend'.

In reply to Dan Arkle:

In strictly chronological terms, 'This' generally refers to something 'up to and including the present time' (Chambers Dictionary). Thus "This Weekend" should only be used during the weekend to which you are referring. If the present time isn't a weekend, "Next Weekend" will refer to the one at the end of the current week.

BUT...

If you consider "This Weekend" to be an abbreviation of "This Coming Weekend", please ignore what I just wrote.

OR...

If the word weekend is derived from an abbreviation of 'Week's end' (I can find no evidence to support this) you should of course use "This Weekend" to refer to the one at the end of this week and "Next Weekend" to the one after that.

Confused? I certainly am.

In reply to phantom whistler:
It seems like your second and third points agree with one another about this week/end? H'ray.