thePITman;852317 wrote:My girlfriend and I used to get into this argument ALL THE TIME! She'd be giving me directions from the passenger seat - "Turn right at the next light." So I would go to turn right at the next light, and she would say "No, the NEXT light!" Grr.
Hopefully the sex is worth it. My wife can go haywire on trying to give directions as well.
As for next Tuesday or this Tuesday... it's all in context. Without a qualifier, it's assumed the first Tuesday you reach is the one in question. "Want to go to the game Tuesday?" It's implied we're talking about the one 1-6 days away. There's no ambiguity in that question.
The problem is when you add "next" to the question, the askee (I made that up) assumes by default you're not meaning the first Tuesday we hit, because you used a qualifier in your statement. There's no need to add 'next' when you mean the first Tuesday we come to. Why would you? That's like owning only one car and telling your friends to go for a ride with you and "We'll take my blue car". No shit Sherlock. You only own one. You don't need to qualify the statement. There is already no ambiguity. You own one blue car. Therefore, if you want to take your car, they know which one it is.
By throwing out a qualifier, you're implying you have more than one car. Now, if you own two cars, that are both blue, and you say "We'll take my blue car." You're an a*****e for adding a qualifier that doesn't relieve an ambiguity. You took the time to add the word 'blue' but not enough time to make sure you defined which.
Same thing with 'next'. Next is implied. Adding 'next' is signaling there's something unusual about this request that's not apparent. It's not this one, but the one after. Why add the qualifier.