English Grammar: Using 'THE' before 'NEXT' & 'LAST'

Yeah, it was really good to see you last night.

No, I had a good time.

Yeah, we haven't seen each other in ages, so we can get together again next week.

Next week?

Okay, I'll see you next week.

Okay. Bye.

Sorry, that was just an old friend of mine.

Hey, everyone.

I'm Alex.

Thanks for clicking and welcome to this lesson on "Next and Last Vs. The Next/The Last".

So, this is a very common confusion, a very common grammatical problem that I sometimes

hear from people who are learning English who are at the beginner, and intermediate,

and sometimes at the advanced level even.

But it's okay.

You're here to learn, and if you've clicked on this video, like, you want to know this

stuff and I'm going to do my best to transmit this information to you.

So, first: "next/last".

Now, when you are talking and using "next" or "last" with a day of the week, a week,

a month, a season, a year, basically you are referring to the one which means you are referring

to the day, the week, the month, the season, or the year directly after or directly before

the current one.

Okay?

So, you heard my conversation on the phone:

"Yeah, it was great to get together, you know, last night.

It was great to see you last night."

The night before today, last night.

And I said I will see them next week, the week directly after the current week.

Okay?

So, for example: "See you next week!"

The week directly after this week, the current one.

"I saw him last night."

I saw him basically directly before today.

Or if it's night now, I saw him last night, the night before this one.

Next: "Did you call her last Friday?

She told me you promised her you were going to call her.

Did you call her last Friday?"

The Friday before now, the most recent Friday.

Okay?

"Next month will be busy."

So if you are, you know, preparing for the holiday season or a specific time of the year

where it's going to be very busy for you, and your family, and your friends, you can

say: "Next month", the month directly after this one.

So, for example, if it's January, next month is February.

If it's March...

March, April.

Yeah, I know my months.

March, the next month...

Well, next month after March is April. Okay?

So: "I will see you next month.

Next month will be busy."

"I can't wait for next summer!"

Okay?

So if summer just finished and the weather is getting colder if you are in a country

that, you know, has more than two seasons or one season in some cases, please...

You know, you can say: "I can't wait for next summer.

I can't wait."

And finally: "We're going to travel to Prague next year."

The year after this one.

So if the year now is 2017, next year is 2018.

Okay?

So we're travelling there next year.

So, you use "next" and "last" with a day of the week, or just the word "week", or a month

of the year, or a season, or a specific year when you want to refer to the one directly

after or directly before the current one.

You got it?

Can I move on to the next part?

Yeah?

Okay, the next part.

So: "the next" and "the last".

So, when you are talking about the period of seven, 30, whatever number of days, or

weeks, or months, or seasons, or years, or any other historical periods, whatever - starting

at or preceding, which means coming before the moment of speaking, you use: "the next",

"the last".

Okay, that's a lot of information, so if we just look at some examples I think it's a

lot easier to understand and to see what I mean.

So, for example: "The next 2 weeks will be tough."

If you are preparing for exams and you have exams for two weeks from now when you're speaking,

the moment of speaking, you're thinking ahead, like:

"Oh, man. Next week and the week after next week",

so the next two weeks, this period of time will

be tough starting from my moment of speaking.

Next: "The last month has been amazing."

So, basically the 30 days preceding today.

So a month, 30 days, or 31 days, or 29, or 28 days depending on the month and leap years,

and things like that.

You can say: "Oh my god, the last 30 days, the last month has been amazing."

The 30 days preceding now have been amazing.

Next: "The next year and a half will be really interesting at my company."

So if your company, you know, is starting a new type of business plan and they say:

"Okay, we want to get from here to here in the next year and a half, you can say:

'The next year and a half starting now until a year and a half from now will be very interesting.'"

So, one more time: "The next year and a half will be really interesting at my company."

Okay, next: "The last two hours of work have been a nightmare!"

So, we all have those days sometimes when you're at your job and everything is going

great, and then there's a period where something goes wrong.

And it goes wrong sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for the

whole day, but in this...

In this example, can say: "The past two hours, the last two hours at work have been a nightmare."

Okay?

And finally: "The next few minutes of this video are very important."

So, stay tuned and keep watching, keep watching.

Okay, so the first part of this video we talked about: "next", "last", "the next", "the last"

in relation to specific days, weeks, months, years, seasons.

And the rules that I mentioned they apply to those days, weeks, months, years, seasons, etc.

But there are situations where we can use "next" and "last", specifically "the next",

"the last" not only with what I just mentioned, but also with events, or situations, or a

special case when we use the word "time" itself, like: "The last time", "the next time", and

we'll get to that a little later.

So, first basically what you have to think about when you use "the next" or "the last"

with an event or a situation is just follow the basic article rules for "the".

When you're talking about a definite or a specific event, or time, or situation, or

the end of a period of time, for example, like in the first example.

So: "The last week of university was really hectic."

The word "hectic" means incredibly busy.

So if you are, you know, talking with your friends and remembering your time in university,

you are referring to a specific time, a specific period of time during university when you

were in university.

So: "Oh, man, I remember the last week".

Which week?

The last week of university, that specific, definite, final week of university.

It was really hectic.

Next: "The last season of Lost"-TV show-"was a little messy".

Or if you mention, and you know what I'm talking about with Lost, you can say:

"The last episode of Lost was very controversial."

So some fans loved it, some fans hated it, some fans were just: "Enh", about it, they

didn't care very much.

So we're specifically talking about the last season of Lost.

You're following the article rule when you're talking about a definite period, or a definite

event, a definite situation, or in this case a definite season.

Which season?

The last season.

Which episode?

The last episode.

Or: "The next episode", if you want to talk about the next, for example.

Or you can say, if you're watching a TV show, you finish one episode and you can't wait

for the next episode.

Right?

Okay, I mentioned the word "time" is a little special, and this is because with the word

"time" you can use: "the last" or "the next", or "last" or "next".

So, for example: "The next time I see you, I'll bring my PlayStation."

Or: "Next time I see you, I'll bring my PlayStation.", "I'll tell you the next time I see you.",

"I'll tell you next time I see you."

Okay?

So, basically you can follow the rule of either-or if you have the word "time" after "next",

or "the next", or "last", or "the last".

Okay? Only with the word "time", though.

And finally, following these rules: "The next Star Wars movie should be good."

Now, I don't know when you're watching this video, but there's a very good chance at the

time you're watching it there's a Star Wars movie coming out for the next, like, 20 years,

so I'm sure this is still relevant.

Is it the Han Solo movie now, is it the Yoda movie?

Whichever one it is.

I hope it's good, whatever one we're up to at this point in time whenever you're watching

this video.

Okay, so guys, I hope that I was able to clear up some of the confusion that some students

have with: "next", "last", "the next", "the last".

If you want to test your understanding of everything we discussed today, as always,

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Til next time, thanks for clicking.