Separated by a Common Language

Hmm... I'm British, but "I've been married a week tomorrow ..." sounds fine to me (although it does look a bit odd written down) and I'm sure I've said similar things hundreds of times.

I would however stress "week" when saying it, since it seems to emphasise the fact it's been a whole week since the event happened. I wouldn't give "a week tomorrow" any special stress when it refers to "next week" though, since it's just a reference to a point in time that doesn't have its own word, like "the day after tomorrow" or "tomorrow afternoon".

"I've been married a week tomorrow" does sound odd to my Southern English ears, but not because of the backward time reference. I'm pretty sure I'd say (if the situation arose) "I'll've been married a week tomorrow."

I've made some adjustments to the post (see near the struck-through bits)--thanks for the feedback!

I have not heard "a week tomorrow" in 3 years in the UK or visits prior to moving here, but I hear "tomorrow week" all the time and have started using it since it's so much easier than saying "a week from tomorrow"

There's also the wonderfully old-fashioned 'this day fortnight' (it doesn't seem to work for a week hence) which seems to crop up more up here in Scotland than down south.

I like phrases like 'a week tomorrow' because they're explicit, whereas I've always found phrases like 'next Wednesday' to be confusing. For instance, if speaking on a Tuesday, I always think 'next Wednesday' should mean the next day but most people seem to use it to mean the Wednesday after that - the nearer Wednesday being called 'this Wednesday'. I'm never sure at what point in the week 'next Wednesday' becomes 'this Wednesday', nor when 'this Wednesday' becomes 'last Wednesday'.
(sorry, that last bit was probably off topic as I expect I'd be confused on this matter on either side of the Atlantic - it's easily done)

Oh, and happy Lynnekuh - I suspect posting about it on your blog is a good way to prolong the festivities, although obviously that's not the reason you are doing it at all!

Fortnight is an interesting word. It's used all the time where I live in England but I think I read somewhere Americans don't use it.

How about "this Wednesday week"? That seems more BrE to me.

I've never heard 'this Wednesday week', and would have a lot of difficulty figuring out what it meant (for a similar reason to that so brilliantly described by Townmouse).

Fortnight can be used naturally in both 'tomorrow fornight' and 'a fortnight tomorrow', but in my (Southern) dialect it wouldn't work as a 'this day' construction - that would have to be 'a fortnight today'.

Happy Birthday and I hope you have a lovely Lynneukah!

I think I (BrE) would probably use the future perfect tense: "I shall have been married a week tomorrow", but I would also use the word (and I cannot for the life of me think what part of speech it is) "come" in a sentence like that: "I shall have been married a year come Thursday".

Personally, I can't stand things like "see you Wednesday week." It's almost like the Brits are trying to talk in TextSpeak. Such terms still throw us off 2+ years since moving here.

I was thinking about commenting on the "this Wednesday"/"next Wednesday" problem when townmouse saved me the trouble by stating my sentiments exactly.

I (British) might well say both "term starts a week tomorrow" (or "a fortnight today" or whatever) and "I'll have been married 13 years come August".

One thing I wouldn't say, but which I think would be said in AmE, is "There will be a sale August 7th" - I'd always say "on August 7th".

I think from my own experience that the meaning of this Wednesday / next Wednesday is (usually) this Wednesday is the Wednesday of this week, next Wednesday is next week. So on Monday, this Wednesday is the day after tomorrow and next Wednesday is nine days off, whereas on Thursday this Wednesday means yesterday.

This is all pretty obscure to this Californian. These all read as archaic/poetic, except this one:
I've never seen or heard "this Wednesday week," so far as I can recall, and until now I would have found it incomprehensible.

Nor can I think of any non-literary situation where the word "shall" might escape my lips. Nor "fortnight," for that matter. Not even sure how to pronounce it.
"Come Tuesday" is just a bit archaic/poetic. One of my favorite songs is titled "Come Monday." Any use of "hence" or "whence" is also poetic.
If I saw "A week on Friday," I would read it as an error for "a week from Friday."

Oh good, I'm glad I'm not the only one getting confused with this/next. I was beginning to think I had missed a memo...

@Julie - fortnight is a pretty prosaic word here in the UK and it's pronounced exactly as you might guess from the spelling (I was going to say prounounced exactly as it's spelled, but realised what a minefield I was about to step into with all these linguists about)

Surely "But bidialectal or prosodically-gifted folks out there are welcome to weigh in on that" should read [folks(AmE)/people(BrE)].

Tangentially --

Good on you, Lynne, for supporting Médecins Sans Frontières: an excellent cause!

I've been a little disappointed, all the same, to learn that MSF is known in the USA as "Doctors Without Borders": that anglicization not only detracts considerably IMHO from the internationalist spirit of the project (as if it's to be taken as read that Americans would, of course, never willingly donate to a "foreign-sounding" charity) but that anglicization of the organization's title also sounds faintly risible to British ears: doctors who have decided not to take in lodgers...

I say 'Wednesday week' and other such constructions all the time, but I'd never say 'this Wednesday week' because it would feel tautologous (sp?). If the aforementioned event were less than a week away, I'd simply say 'Wednesday'.

@Julie, I (20-something BrE) would very rarely use the word 'shall' either. I consider it an expression for the posh or aged [Sorry Mrs. Redboots!]. I'd be far more likely to say 'will' or a contraction thereof.

A very happy Lynnekuh to all of you! I shall celebrate tomorrow with cake. A big slab of cake from an overpriced goutmet cake establishment of my acquaintance. Feel free to join me.

@Kevin: I thought the fund was to procure boarders for doctors who felt themselves bereft of the company and supplementray income...

Party on, Lynneguist!
This American thinks Doctors without Borders MEANT international, and that's the way I always heard it.
Had NEVER seen Wednesday week until this very post.

Ah, Solo (or should I say @Solo..?), your post not only causes me to believe that we think (anent medics and their potential paying guests) on very similar lines but it also reminds me that I must surely, before too much longer, comment here upon the sudden and spectacular rise on this blog of the "vocative @".

But having, I fear, already digressed too much from the main topic at hand, I had probably best leave that until after the last day of Lynnekuh -- which I feel must surely still be, justifiably, in full swing.

@townmouse I find phrases like 'next Wednesday' not confusing at all, but precise. This of course does not prevent others using them in that different way that confuses you and misleads me.

"Next" refers to the soonest future one, just as "last" refers to the most recent past one. Simple.

To those who use "next" in such a way that it sometimes means not the next one (which you'd call "this") but the one after that, do you find you get lost following other people's directions? Perhaps other people get lost following yours!

@Jessica Your example "see you Wednesday week." is idiomatic here in England. "See you Wednesday" is a similar example. These phrases would be used in an informal context where it wouldn't surprise me if people omitted the "on". The day name used on its own like that as an adverb, with no "on" and no modifier such as "week", is used only informally. British journalists wouldn't write a sentence like this one, recently quoted on Language Log:

"Stunned colleagues Friday described veteran CBS News producer Joe Halderman—who was arrested outside the network’s West 57th Street offices Thursday in the alleged scheme to blackmail David Letterman—as a rogue [...]."

"I have been married a week tomorrow" -- this sentence sounds wrong wrong wrong even though I can't see any interpretation other than the intended one. A bit like Mrs Redboots, I could only say "I will have been married a week tomorrow". [Not "I shall", though "Shall I" is just about possible; have you posted on "shall/will" or has it only come up in comments, which I know you hate?]

"Xday week" is much commoner than "a week [on/from/-] Xday", as per NFAH.

"This day fortnight" is not archaic in Ireland, though "this day week" is much more common. What do non-Irish people say instead? I guess "next Xday" [where today is Xday] but that's just a guess. Also: I pronounce the first syllable of "fortnight" like "forty" rather than "fourteen", in spite of the etymology. I reverse some of Well's NORTH and FORCE vowel class categorisations; that's either specific to me or to Ireland or else a mistake in Wells' classification.

Regarding the ambiguity of "last/this/next Xday": I find "Xday of last/this/next week" is usually unambiguous, provided you agree on what day the week begins.

Fortnight is not widely used in the US (and sounds quite old fashioned to these American ears).

I have to agree with some of the previous posts that 'this Tuesday week' would be utterly incomprehensible and would require clarification.

Also, when referencing days of the week, 'this' would refer to a day in the current week, and 'next' refers to a day in the following week. Thus, if today were Tuesday, 'this Wednesday' would be tomorrow and 'next Wednesday' would be eight days from now.

I was always taught that "I shall..." is merely a statement about a future action, but "I will..." expresses resolution (as in the marriage service).

As for misunderstanding pop lyrics, I always thought "homecoming queen" in the Monkees' "Daydream Believer" was just a nonsense phrase until I discovered that it did have a meaning to Americans.

Kate (Derby, UK)

As far as I'm concerned, the first syllables of 'fortnight' 'forty' and fourteen' are so near as to be virtually indistinguishable.

I'm curious, have Americans got any time terms that we don't have over here? Now I think about it, I don't think I ever learned an equivalent of 'fortnight' in German or French, so perhaps it very much an English/British thing.
Why would that be? Are we just more greatly disposed towards two-weekly cycles of events?

My Canadian flatmate and fellow Councillor used to say bi-monthly to mean fortnightly, but the Council vetoed its use, because no one was entirely sure what he meant.

I grew up in coastal North Carolina with expressions like "Wednesday week" -- meaning a week from this coming Wednesday. Today is Monday; if I said "Wednesday week I'm going to France" -- well that would be clear. I imagine the usage is not limited to coastal N.C. in the U.S.

I've (ScE) a feeling there may be a Scottish to English difference in the use of "next". I'm sure I remember reading a definition of "next" in an English-Scots dictionary as "next but one" (is THAT contruction used in AmE?). Anyway, to me "next Wednesday" is, as already described by previous posters, Wednesday of next week, regardless of whether it is in the future or past.

Oh, and surely the doctors would have to be not too highly literate to be confused between "borders" and "boarders"?

@Solo, bi-monthly is all I can think of, though when I was young and pedantic (as opposed to now, when I am not young) I used to insist that twice a month is 'semi-monthly' and 'bimonthly' should be every other month. But I'm afraid that as a 14-year-old pedant, I wasn't listened to much. Imagine if I'd had a blog!

OED s.v. next

sense A.5b:

Applied (without preceding the) to days of the week, with either the current day or (in later use; orig. Sc.) the current week as the implicit point of reference.
Thus (for example) next Friday may mean ‘the soonest Friday after today’ or ‘the Friday of the coming week’. The latter may be indicated contextually, e.g. by contrast with this, but it is not always clear which meaning is intended. Cf. sense A.10c.

**********************

sense A.10:
Of a time, season, etc.: immediately following in time; coming directly after the time of writing, speaking, etc.
In modern use, the next in senses A. 10a and A. 10c is capable of being construed as a postmodifying attributive adjective ...

sense A.10c:
Applied to days of the week, with either the current day or (more usually) the current week as the implicit point of reference. Cf. sense A. 5a.
In Sc. use sometimes contrasted with first.

But Lynne, bi- suggests twice, so bi-monthly should mean twice monthly...

Yes, but in my 14-year-old pedantry, I was adamant that there should be a 'bimonthly' and a 'semimonthly' and they should mean different things.

Teenage logic defies fact.

You may have been thinking of the distinction between 'biennial' (once every two years) and 'biannual' (twice a year) perhaps? I don't know what the month equivalent would have been (bimenstrual?)

"I used to insist that twice a month is 'semi-monthly' and 'bimonthly' should be every other month"

They are! Alternatively, you can use biweekly. I used to write for a bimonthly (as opposed to biweekly) publication, so I'm just as pedantic on this point.

The French equivalent for "fortnight" is, illogically "quinze jours" (15 days!).

Kate (Derby, UK)

This is precisely the issue we had with bi-monthly.

I (BrE) readily understand next Wednesday to be 7 days after this Wednesday when speaking of the future, but when talking about the past, I would understand next to refer to the immediately following day of that name (because 'this' would make no sense, although possibly 'that' might). Example: 'On Monday he caught a chill and died the next Wednesday' would span just 3 days for me.

@Richard Sabey. I did raise the issue of prepositionless days in AmE in an email to Lynne some time ago but as it has now been raised here without appearing to be too off-topic, can anyone explain which is the older: the American or British usage?

Bimonthly can mean either twice a month, or every two months.

And, likewise, biweekly can mean every two weeks, or twice a week.

Also, every two weeks, and twice a month, do not mean the same thing.

@mollymooly: I don't know about elsewhere, but I would say: "(Tuesday)two weeks from today," or "three weeks from Wednesday," or another version of the same construction which counts forward from a day in the near future.

@Julie: sorry, my question was, 'what do non-Irish people say instead of "this day week"?'

Mollymooly: I love your idea of 'Wednesday of last/this/next week'.
Speaking on a Sunday or Monday, I (BrE) might say 'this coming Wednesday' for this week, and 'in ten days' time' when I refer to the Wednesday in next week - I thought the latter was a well-known BrE approximation but several people have replied - 'but that's nine days away, not ten!' So I will try Mollymooly's system from now on.

I always think that "Next Wednesday" (or whatever) is ambiguous, so I always qualify it by saying "Not this Wednesday, but next Wednesday." So I might say, "My parents are coming to visit not this Wednesday, but next Wednesday." I like "Wednesday next" better, but I've never heard that construction before. (AmE here)

The closest thing to "fortnight" in AmE, at least in budgetary contexts, is "pay period" -- as in "We spend $XX on gasoline each pay period." And then only if you get paid every two weeks (with some employers it's twice a month, some it's weekly, but "fortnightly" is pretty common).

If someone talked to me about "pay periods" I would assume lengths of time of about a month. Not exactly a calendar month, because then they would just say "month" -- but perhaps four-weekly periods, or the nearest Friday to the end of the month, or similar.

I've never known anyone who got a regular wage at two-week intervals.

Further to biochemist and Robin:
'Wednesday of next week' and 'Wednesday of this week' work well, as does 'this Wednesday coming', meaning, obviously, the first Wednesday to happen.

Flatlander & Robbie -
When I was in the US Army (1968-1970) I was paid monthly. Since then, most of the jobs I've held have paid biweekly (26 paydays per year), including my current employment. I have had some which paid semimonthly (24 paydays per year).

Because of this variability, I would never assume that my Pay Periods were the same as my neighbor's.

"you won't give a damn by Wednesday Week" - Elvis.

The Undertones also had a song called Wednesday Week, referring to the past… "Wednesday week - she loved me Wednesday week - never happened at all"

I wonder whether the reference to the past is more common in Irish English. I (BrE) am not sure when Wednesday Week would have been: A week ago on Wednesday? A week ago last Wednesday?

As regards quinze jours, quinzaine etc being illogical, it depends on your point of view. This is inclusive reckoning, as practised, for example, in musical scales: the *fifth* is the fifth degree of the diatonic scale *including* the root, though it's the fourth note after. Same when we say à huitaine, à quinzaine. Suppose it's the first of the month, so today fortnight is the 15th; the French expression simply reflects the total span, not the difference from today.

Mollymooly and Biochemist: I think that in Irish English the construction "this Wednesday coming" is more common than "this coming Wednesday". And if not more common, it is definitely common and, perhaps, much more so than in Britain.

BrE (Scot, 60+) I’m 100% with Townmouse on this. A week tomorrow, a week from tomorrow and tomorrow week all mean the same, as I know when tomorrow is. Substitute Wednesday for tomorrow, and all these phrases become unclear, because I don’t know WHICH Wednesday is meant: the one just passed or the one approaching. And despite comments to the contrary, I have heard both options defended vigorously, usually it terms if “but it’s obvious”, or “everyone uses it that way”.
Also, like Townmouse, if today is Tuesday or even Monday, next Wednesday is often not the first Wednesday to occur (i. e. NOT tomorrow if today is Tuesday), but the following Wednesday, so that Wednesday week can be over two weeks away. I always thought that “a week come Wednesday” was unambiguous, but I have known people misinterpret this usage as well. It’s safest to use a date.

(seeing another 2020 reply on this ancient topic so I'll just add) Welsh has an equivalent of the French huitaine, a week is "wythnos", literally "eight nights".