危険な英語の間違えのベスト１０ （その1）

Usually, mistakes are not serious (真剣). If you forget (忘れる) “a” or “the” people will be able to understand you, or if you say “Go to shopping” instead of (代わりに) “go shopping” (買い物は場所ではないから”to”は使えない), people will still understand your meaning. But some mistakes can be very dangerous.

This series is about the most dangerous mistakes in English. These are mistakes that could cause a serious misunderstanding (重大な間違いの原因になる). Here’s number 1:

"This" and "next" are the two very easy to confuse in English. If you make a mistake with "this Tuesday" and "next Tuesday," you might miss an important meeting or event. Even native speakers sometimes disagree or get confused about these words.

thisとnextは英語ではとても混乱しやすい単語です。「this Tuesday」と「next Tuesday」を間違えたら、大事な会議やイベントをすっぽかしてしまうかもしれません。ネイティブの間でもこの単語の意味についてはよく議論になります。

If Japnese people want to say, "(今週の）金曜日に会いましょうか" they might say, "Shall we meet next Friday?" Most native English speakers would hear 「来週の金曜日に会いましょうか」.

In English, if they are going to meet within seven days (七日間以内）, most people say "this." If they are going to meet more than seven days later, they say, "next."

英語で7日間以内に会うつもりであれば殆どの人はthisを使います。7日間後以上の場合nextを使います。

Some people disagree about the meaning of "this" and "next" (especially if people are talking on a Friday about the Monday three days later.), but there is a safe way to avoid confusion:

ある人はthisとnextの意味について議論します（特に金曜日に３日後の月曜日について話す場合）。しかし混乱を避ける方法があります：

1. If you are talking about this week, say, "this coming ～". E.g. "I'll meet you this coming Friday."
1. 今週について話してる時「this coming ～」を使う。
2. If you are talking about next week, say, "～ next week." E.g. "I'll meet you on Friday next week."
2. 来週について話してる時「～ next week」を使う。
3. Use the date. E.g. "I'll meet you on Monday the 12th."
3. 日にちを使う。

You should also be careful about months. You can use the same rules.
E.g. I'm going to Hawaii next June. = 来年の6月にハワイに行く。
E.g. I'm going to Hawaii this June. = 今年の6月にハワイに行く。