Hello, everybody! Welcome back to Martin English Wonderland!
I heard a story from the conversational English teacher. Assuming today is October 18, 2019, Friday. A customer called a restaurant that he would like to reserve a table for his family next Monday. When his family went to the restaurant on October 21, the restaurant receptionist said his table reservation is on October 28!
So, what is the exact day when we say last Monday, this Monday or next Monday?
We used to think last Monday is October 7, this Monday is October 14 and next Monday is October 21.However, it is not the normal way that native speakers think. In English culture, last Monday usually refers to this past Monday, this Monday refers to this coming Monday, and next Monday refers to the second Monday occurring on the calendar.
Therefore, in this story last Monday is October 14, this Monday is October 21 and next Monday is October 28.
Imagine you invite friends to your birthday party "next Monday", but no one shows up? This is probably the last thing you wanna see.
In order to avoid misunderstanding, the conversational English teacher suggested that we should use month and date to indicate a clear meaning instead of using the expression like last Monday, this Monday, next Monday. When someone talks to us using this kind of expression, we had better confirm with the talker by means of month and date. Using this past Monday or this coming Monday is also a way of not making ambiguity.
Thank you for listening!
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