What does "next Saturday" mean (lemmynsfw.com)

submitted 8 months ago by Worx@lemmynsfw.com to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Let's imagine it's currently Wednesday the 1st. Does "next Saturday" mean Saturday the 4th (the next Saturday to occur) or Saturday the 11th (the Saturday of next week)?

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[-] g0nz0li0@lemmy.world 27 points 8 months ago

Saturday the 4th is part of "this week" so it's "this Saturday".

Saturday the 11th is part of "next week" so it's "next Saturday".

Otherwise "next Saturday" and "Saturday next week" would mean different things.

[-] BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

Yeah, it'd be great if that were the case. But Saturday the 4th is also just the next Saturday in terms of Saturdays.

It's an ambiguous term and so always needs clarify gbas you and the person you're talking to may be thinking along different lines.

[-] g0nz0li0@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

I think we can all agree it's confusing. I am just pointing out that there is an internal consistency in why it's phrased in this way.

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 1 points 8 months ago

If somebody says to me next Sunday I just assumed they mean the next Sunday to come around. Especially because there is a lot of ambiguity about when the week begins and ends. American software likes to default to calling Saturday the final day of the week, and Sunday the first day of the following week.

[-] g0nz0li0@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

Technically "next Sunday" is the nearest Sunday (eg "sunday of next week"), however next Saturday is not (because it's the Saturday of next week"). This assumes we all accept that Sunday is considered the start of the week - which isn't always the case nowadays.

It's chaos! But I'm just pointing out that there's a wired logic to it, which I assume at some point made more sense than it does in our time.

this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2024

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