What are you doing next Friday? And what are your plans for this Friday? Will you do the same thing you did last Friday? And what\u2019s the difference between these three Fridays, anyway?<\/p>\n
English learners often struggle with next<\/em>, this<\/em>, and last<\/em>, three adjectives that are used to describe plans, appointments, and events that happen on specific days of the week. Next<\/em> and this<\/em> are especially hard. But it\u2019s possible to make mistakes with last<\/em> too, particularly if you don\u2019t fully understand how last<\/em> relates to next<\/em> and this<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We\u2019ll start with the easiest weekday adjective. You probably already know that last<\/em> refers to a weekday in the past. Be aware that last<\/em> almost always refers to the immediate previous time that a specific weekday happened. For example, if it\u2019s Wednesday right now, last Sunday<\/em> would be three days ago.<\/p>\n I said that last<\/em> almost<\/strong> always refers to an immediately previous specific weekday. There is an exception, however. Last<\/em> is not usually used to describe yesterday<\/em>. So if it\u2019s Thursday right now, you probably wouldn\u2019t refer to yesterday as last<\/em> Wednesday<\/em>. Instead, last Wednesday<\/em> would more likely refer to two Wednesdays ago<\/em>, or the day a week before yesterday.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Next<\/em> can be a little bit harder than last<\/em>. Many English students assume that next<\/em> refers to the immediate<\/em> next<\/em> time a specific day of the week happens. This seems like it could be correct. After all, if you\u2019re driving, the next<\/em> turn is the turn you can immediately see and take. If you\u2019re listening to someone talk, the next<\/em> thing they say will be the thing you hear immediately.<\/p>\n However, when describing weekdays, next<\/em> is not so immediate. This is a weird irregularity in English\u2014when used to describe specific weekdays, next<\/em> does not refer to the very next time the weekday will happen. Instead, next<\/em> refers to the second<\/em> time that a specific weekday occurs in the future.<\/p>\n If you found the paragraph above confusing, here\u2019s an example: If it\u2019s Friday, November 6, next Saturday<\/em> would not be Saturday, November 7. Instead, next Saturday<\/em> would be two Saturdays into the future, not just one. And f someone talks to you about next Saturday<\/em> on Friday, November 6, they are referring to Saturday, November 14.<\/p>\n There is only one case in which you might use next<\/em> to describe the very next<\/em> time a weekday happens. You may do this if you are talking about a week from today<\/em>. So if it\u2019s Saturday, November 14, and a friend talks to you about next<\/em> Saturday, they\u2019re probably referring to Saturday, November 21, just one Saturday into the future.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This<\/em> is probably the easiest \u201cweekday\u201d adjective to learn and master\u2014but be careful not to get it confused with next<\/em> when you speak or write.<\/p>\n This<\/em> always refers to the immediate next<\/em> time that a specific weekday will happen. So if it\u2019s Monday, November 23, and you talk about this Wednesday<\/em>, you\u2019re talking about Wednesday, November 25. The only time you want to be careful about using this<\/em> to refer to an immediate<\/em> next<\/em> weekday is if you are talking about tomorrow<\/em>. If it\u2019s Monday, November 23rd<\/sup> and you want to talk about Tuesday, November 24, saying this Tuesday<\/em> sounds a little confusing. A fellow English speaker might have to stop and think for a moment to realize what you\u2019re saying. Instead, it would be better to refer to the 24th<\/sup> simply as tomorrow<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On the TOEFL, you will listen to a number of conversation audio tracks, both in Listening and in Integrated Speaking. In these conversations, it\u2019s not uncommon to hear people talk about things they recently did, or future events they\u2019re planning. Without a firm grasp on next<\/em>, this<\/em>, and last<\/em>, TOEFL conversation tracks can be hard to follow and fully understand.<\/p>\n The importance of these words in life should be obvious. It\u2019s hard to make plans with someone if you can\u2019t understand which days are being discussed and agreed on. And it\u2019s hard to update someone on things that have recently happened if you\u2019re not using last<\/em> correctly.<\/p>\n So read this post carefully and make sure you know these three words. I will also be putting up a Magoosh Comics review of this topic soon, maybe even as soon as this<\/em> Wednesday. Stay tuned!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What are you doing next Friday? And what are your plans for this Friday? Will you do the same thing you did last Friday? And what\u2019s the difference between these three Fridays, anyway? English learners often struggle with next, this, and last, three adjectives that are used to describe plans, appointments, and events that happen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13604],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13630],"class_list":["post-2515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vocab"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLast<\/h2>\n
Next<\/h2>\n
This<\/h2>\n
Why this is important on the TOEFL\u2026 and in life<\/h2>\n