#sticky_and_tricky Next vs. the next Hello, dear all! Today I | The High Speech

#sticky_and_tricky
Next vs. the next

Hello, dear all! Today I want to revisit a sticky point for many English learners – the use of next as an adjective with and without the definite article. It can easily be misleading for a non-native speaker, and I believe this post will give you much clarity about it.

1. Next and the next with time periods.

a) We use next week, month, semester, etc. when we are talking about the time period that begins after an equal ongoing time period.

E.g.:
We will meet next week. (The week following the ongoing week.)
I am going to Paris next month. (The month following the ongoing month.)

b) We use the next hour, 24 hours, week, month, etc. when we are talking about the said time period starting from the moment of speaking.

E.g.:
The next week is going to determine my having a job in this company. (From Monday to Sunday or from Friday to Thursday.)
The next month is going to decide the manager's fate at the club. (The next 30 days or so though they usually say the next 30 days.)
In the next 12 hours, the carrier rocket will dock with the International Spaces Station.

2. The next with non-temporal nouns
When we use next to describe non-temporal nouns, we always use it with the definite article.

E.g.:
The next class is geography.
The next Nottingham Forest game is against Derby County.
The next underground station is Chiswik Park.