what are the grammar rules behind saying "this monday" vs "next monday"?

Question

I have been brought up to say "this monday" to refer to the 1st monday coming up and "next monday" to refer to the monday that follows. is this right. where can i find grammatical reference that covers the use

Answer 1

This is not exactly a "grammatical" question; it is a matter of word usage. And there is no simple,mechanical rule.

The problem is that "this" and "next" are not nice, neat ly "logically" distinct categories. A living language is not math, and usage is not determined by "logic" alone.

"This" refers to something close by; next to something more distant. Thus, if you are speaking on a Tuesday and you say "THIS Monday", the one just past is clearly closest, so it makes sense to refer to it that way. There should not be any confusion here, because presumably you will go on to speak in the PAST tense. As it gets later in the week, "this" by itself may seem less appropriate (though the use of past tense would still make clear which one you mean), which is why it is common to expand the expression to "this past Monday".

(Here I absolutely disagree with "shades of Bruno". To begin with, NO ONE says "THAT Monday" to refer to the one just past! And "LAST Monday" for yesterday sounds extremely odd!)

In most contexts "next" generally refers to the first of something in the future, but not as close as "this". Thus, as you note, on Monday I will say "THIS Tuesday" for the following day, and "next Tuesday" for the Tuesday of NEXT week (the second one ahead of me).

Note that the fact that it is "NEXT week" we are talking about influences how we look at it and speak of it. It seems odd to speak of "THIS Tuesday" for "the Tuesday of NEXT week". Thus, if on WEDNESDAY I say "next Tuesday" it is usually taken as referring to "the Tuesday of next week". Simply saying "this Tuesday (as noted above) tends to be used for the Tuesday just past.

Of course, the same things apply to "LAST Tuesday", etc. I would not use it to refer to yesterday anymore than I would speak of tomorrow as "NEXT Tuesday".

In other words, there is NOT one simple rule. But there ARE ways to make clear what you mean -- past tense and "this past Tuesday" help, and so does the expression "this coming Tuesday" to refer to the very next one (whether this week or next). Good usage does not necessarily mean following a wooden formula; it DOES mean making sure that people can understand what you are referring to, whether by the context or by some added words or forms.

Answer 2

Next Monday

Answer 3

You need not bother with grammatical rules where logic and common sense suffice. The Monday past is gone, is "that" Monday; the one that is coming up is "this", and the one to follow will be the "next".

English "as she is spoke" sometimes does make sense.!

Answer 4

For the purpose of clarity--that is, your listener understanding exactly what you mean--I would suggest that you use neither form (especially "next Monday"). To some people, next Monday means the next Monday that comes along, what you would call "this Monday."