"This" and "Next" Weekend Rules

In case there was any confusion:

this weekend - the weekend that's going to happen in less than 7 days

next weekend - the weekend AFTER this weekend.

So, when I ask "Do you want to come to my LOST party next weekend?", you have more than 7 days to get back to me.  (By the way, it will be Saturday, January 16th in Brooklyn.)

Comments

[Matt Jacobs]

WRONG. Here's how it works:

this weekend: the weekend that comes before all others

next weekend: If it's Mon-Wed, it's the weekend that comes before all the others. If it's Thu-Sun, the weekend is at least 5 days away.

[David Jacobs]

No, you are wrong Matty. Natalie is correct.

[Steve Ivy]

Oh, I beg to differ. I must agree with His Mattness on this one. If it is Mon-Wed, then the upcoming weekend is far enough away that "next weekend" can be used to differentiate it from "this just recently passed weekend, for whose debauchery I may still be reaping the consequences".

[nataliepo]

Come on. Why would there be two different phrases -- "This" and "Next" -- if they didn't mean two different things????

[daisy barringer]

Perhaps we can differentiate the weekend that just occurred from the one that is going to occur in a few days with our verb tense:

"What did you do this weekend?" refers to the previous weekend. And one would probably start using "last" around Wednesday anyway.

"What are you doing this weekend?" refers to the upcoming weekend.

"What are you doing next weekend?" means the weekend after the one that is about to happen... unless someone says it on Monday in which case I sort of feel like they'd mean the one that's about to happen.

OHMYGOD. There has to be an official ruling on this somewhere. HELP.

[rayners]

This is why I always qualify "this weekend" with "coming" in between. If I mean the weekend that we just survived, I'd say "this past weekend".