Next Thursday

[Kelthaz]

I would assume it's the 11th. The person could have said "come to the event on Thursday" instead of "come to the event on next Thursday." The person sending the invitation went out of his way to add the extra word "next" to the sentence, so it must have some significance.

 

[Canadave]

I guess it's ambiguous, but I would take "this Thursday" and "next Thursday" to mean the same thing. It's interesting how many people consider "next Thursday" to jump past the current week, considering it all of a unit; makes a certain kind of sense, but it never would have occurred to me. The 11th, to me, would be "a week from [this/next] Thursday."

Must be one of those goofy regional things, because to me "next Thursday" is obviously "a week from Thursday."

Yeah, I imagine it is. There's really no question about it for me.

 

[Scout101]

I appear to be with the majority, but i'd assume the 11th. If I meant the 4th, I'd have either said "THIS Thursday", or simply "Thursday". By saying "Next Thursday", it implies to me 'not this Thursday, Next one'.

For example, if I said right now that i wanted to meet you next tuesday, you wouldn't be looking for me tomorrow, would you? Maybe the proximity of the date helps in that example, but same language should imply the same thing, even if it's a little funny...

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Well, I would, but I also have trouble remembering what day of the week it is. If somebody said "next Wednesday," my reaction would be "OK, cool." Then I'd realize that it was tomorrow and realize it would be quite an odd thing to say, so I'd clarify. If somebody had said next Thursday, I would think the immediately next Thursday. The same logic of "he would have said 'This Thursday' if he meant the immediately next Thursday" would apply to my thought of "he would have said 'A Week From Thursday' if he didn't mean the immediately next Thursday." But I probably would double check.

 

[RJDiogenes]

This is beginning to sound like a Seinfeld plot.

 

[Trekker4747]

Just imagine that today is Monday 1st. You get an email inviting you to an event next Thursday. Do you think that this means the event is on the 4th or the 11th?

"This" - occurring on the next instance of the day from today.

"Next" - occurring on the second instance of the day from today.

People who say that "next Thursday" means "this" Thursday are being too literal that it means "the next" Thursday. It does not since there's the phrase "this Thursday" and when you're inside of a week it's implied that all days of the week are grouped together. "next Thursday" cannot be the Thursday a few days from now because, in a sense, it's already here.

And "Thursday next" just sounds clumsy and confusing to me. It's a phrase that seems to be missing words or sounds like an incomplete sentence. When putting out invitations are using notes, however, I'm always sure to use a date.

But "next Thursday" is a little over a week from now. The phrase doesn't literally mean the next Thursday. It means "Thursday, next week."

 

[Skellington]

Voted "either". I'd reply to the e-mail asking for clarification. "Next Thursday" would normally be unambiguous today (Wednesday); even though in strictness it means tomorrow, it would be understood to mean next week. If mentioned on a Friday it would clearly mean the following Thursday. If mentioned on a Sunday or Monday, though, it's ambiguous. The sender didn't employ enough thought to write something like "Thursday next week" or give a date, which suggests that they should be discouraged from holding a mouse, never mind an event.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Trekker, your argument is conclusory. "Next" only isn't literal because you interpret it to mean "next week." Like I said, I've never seen it that way. Maybe we could agree that reasonable minds could differ on this issue?

 

[bluedana]

I would take it to mean the 11th, because otherwise, "this" and "next" means the same thing in relation to Thursday, and in my mind, they've always been separate.

If I thought it was ambiguous (as in, I can't figure out from context that I'm right about the day), I would also clarify date and time in a diplomatic way that would allow them to correct me if I'm wrong, like "So I look forward to seeing you on the 11th." They could always reply that they meant the 4th, and it's all good.

 

[Yeoman Randi]

I would presume the 11th. If the person issuing the invitation intended it to be the Thursday of the same week, they would use the phrase "this Thursday," instead of "next Thursday."

This.

 

[RandyS]

This is beginning to sound like a Seinfeld plot.

I was wondering when somebody was gonna point that out. Nobody picked up on my quote.

But still, both me and Jerry are right.

 

[trekkiedane]

This is beginning to sound like a Seinfeld plot.

I've just watched the Becker episode where it's a sub-plot - nothing in this thread wasn't also in that episode

 

[RJDiogenes]

And I never even watched the show.