Hi, Gary...

Posted by Gary on July 10, 2003

In Reply to: Hi, Gary... posted by sphinx on July 10, 2003

: Thanks for your help!
: But because I've never seem "from" can be used this way, could you please give antoher example in which "from" shares the meaning with "next"?

: And I wonder: if today is Sunday, and someone says "Let's make it a week from Saturday", is he/she referring to next Saturday, or the Saturday after next Saturday?

: Thanks!

: : 2. "a week from Saturday", refers to the Saturday after next, i.e. not the coming Saturday but the one after that. In the UK at least this is often called "a week on Saturday", which is even less intuitive.

I can't think of other examples of from being used to mean next.

"Let's make it a week from Saturday" would refer to the Saturday after the next Saturday.

In this part of the world (Yorkshire) there's an even more confusing use of words to do with dates. They use while to mean until. So "wait while Saturday" is understood to mean "wait until Saturday".

"I'll hold my breath while you count to ten" would be understood by most people as "I'll hold my breath for as long as it takes you to count to ten". Around here they would mean "I'll hold my breath until you start counting".

• "From X" (day, time) R. Berg 07/10/03
  • Which reminds me Bob 07/12/03