@revk@onepict this is an interesting dialectal variation
there's also a question to ask about "this friday", and does it include the one that just passed a day or two ago, or does it mean the next upcoming one, or what
@revk Voted 9th as that'd be my guess but it's sufficiently ambiguous I'd avoid using the phrase and seek clarification if somebody else used it.
Had a similar problem last month. On Sunday December 3rd I emailed my heating oil supplier asking for a delivery saying I wasn't low immediately but if the weather carried on as it was I'd be getting desperate by the time New Year was past (in Scotland so NY lasts a while). To my surprise I got a reply that afternoon. It said they'd deliver “next week”.
To me, on Sunday “next week” starts the next day but I suspected they really meant the week after. Still, though they're usually pretty good, once before they acknowledged an order email without actually putting it in their system so I was beginning to get a bit twitchy until it actually arrived on Thursday December 14th.
After reading the comments herein, I'd say 100% are confused.
It must be regional, which took me aback.
Here in MN, a day that is within the current week, you just say the day. The rest of the context of the sentence should already make it clear whether you're talking about the past or the future (i.e. "On Sunday we went".
But if it's a day next week, then "Next Friday" means not "THIS Friday".
Y'all might be right where you are, but here, I'm right. Odd.
@mack505 I understand people to mean the one next upcoming unless otherwise specified. Weeks don't enter into it for me unless we're talking about a week from today.
Exactly the same problem with "park behind this car", when the car in question stands somewhere ahead of you.
Some of us will park between the front of our own car and the rear of the other car (since that position is "behind" from that car's perspective). Others will drive by the other car and park on the front side of that car (because they have now driven "behind" it). Both are reasonable.
What is strange is that some of us can't accept that their's is not the only approach.
You don't drive "behind car B", doing so it being and continuing to be "behind" it, not "in front of it". Driving "behind car B" is an ongoing thing with bar B moving and you moving and you staying "behind" it.
Really that is a language usage of "behind" I simply cannot grasp. "behind" meaning "in front of" just "does not compute", sorry.
Fact is, if you tell a random selection of drivers to "park behind car X", some will go for A, others for B, and neither group will be negligible in size.
Your way of thinking clearly is firmly in the "A" camp, but there are "B" people.
You have lost your keys in the living room. You look across the room and see the sofa (X). Are the keys somewhere between you and the sofa (position A), or are they on the other side of the sofa (position B), Many of us would call B "behind" the sofa.
@the_roamer Behind the sofa is behind it, not beyond it - if I am looking it from the end then behind it may be left, against the wall, and in front may be right facing the room. The only way "beyond" it is also "behind" it is when looking from the front of it towards the wall.
A sofa, and a car, has a "hind", a "back", a "rear", and "behind" is to that "rear", always.
If I stand behind the sofa, between it and the wall, facing the room, are you saying "behind" is now "in front" of it?
@the_roamer yeh, I thought I had misunderstood what you are saying.
Sounds like I have not. And sounds like there is a usage of “behind” that has no reference to the “hind” part of the thing being referenced.
New one to me!
But it would suggest, with that interpretation, it would not be possible for me to be standing “behind” something, looking at it. As “behind” would always be the other side from my view point. Is that the case?
@revk@the_roamer suppose we were on foot, and you said to me "hide behind car B", I would position myself so that car B was in between you and me - and this would be irrespective of which way the car was facing.
I suppose it's a mildly different form of "behind", but we do use it in other scenarios where the object has no "front and back" at all. "Get behind the wall"
@dan@the_roamer interesting. The “hide” makes all the difference, you would only manage that if positioning so you cannot be seen which severely limits where you can be.
Now if it was “oh, Fred if coming round the corner, quick, hide behind that car”, then it matters from Fred’s view point not mine, so a different spot again.
I don’t see “park behind” the same. If we were on a side road, would that mean park on the pavement so as to be “behind” from our view?
@dan@the_roamer I see “park” as two options, in front of, and behind, and I would see that in respect of the existing parked car, not my view point, or the view point of someone coming around the corner. And from the view point of the parked car it has a front and behind without, I would think, without ambiguity.
Hide has a viewpoint of the person from which you are hiding, not of the thing behind which you are hiding.
@the_roamer@revk there are some people who get really confused about "bring forward" and "push back" with respect to time (e.g. appointments, meetings) too - doesn't mean they're right :)
And that is another good example of two mutually exclusive ways of interpreting the same statement. Either we take time's arrow as absolute (forward means later), or we look at the date shift relative to where we are (forward means closer to our now). Both are entirely plausible. Can't we simply accept that there is a plurality of perspectives?
@Lizette603_23@revk I agree. The next train is always the next train, whether or not there's a train at the platform in front of you and regardless of whether you're on it. Much the same goes for Fridays.
Mondays, however, really are problematic, being the start of the week only for some people, bringing the possibility of confusion as to whether this week is next week already, or something more behindhand.
Which is why, as a general rule, it's best to avoid scheduling anything for a Monday.
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