Demain and lendemain!

Help please. I always thought lendemain meant the day after tomorrow. Now I discover (on another thread) that it can mean tomorrow. How can I be certain it’s one and not the other?

le lendemain is always “the following day”. Le lendemain de/du/de la is "the day after…[whatever the de/du/de la referred to] e.g. le lendemain de la fête.

Demain=tomorrow.

I would guess maybe après-demain is the day after tomorrow

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Thanks Karen. I’ve obviously misunderstood at sometime in the past and never bothered to check it.

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Agree with Karen, I used demain to say tomorrow and this will come after today. But lendemain to say the day after, even if is not tomorrow (but it could be!)

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That’s it, le lendemain is when you are talking about ‘the following day’ but you might mean the day after next Monday or November 11th or whenever. Demain is specifically for the day after the one you are in right now ie tomorrow.
Cf ’ the morrow’ as in “a sadder and a wiser man he rose the morrow morn” goodness I love The Ancient Mariner.

You say après-demain for the day after tomorrow but le surlendemain for 2 days after whenever it is.

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Does he know?

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Interesting to hear the French from Vero…

In my best French I’ve been trying to remind my netghbour about halloween, when the kids come knocking on our doors…

Monday 31st… loud and clear… yes, quite so, but when is that…
well today is Friday… and I’m waving fingers at her… Saturday, Sunday… then it’s Monday… hurrah.
She smiled happily… and muttered something about “in a week’s time”… and I’m panicking, hoping I’ve misunderstood…

It’s Friday today… I’m gently bellowing… going through the whole palaver again…
yes, but Monday is next week… she’s smiling at me…

aaargh… this happens every year… she is always so surprised when the kids knock…
and I know this year will be no different…

Oh… is it today??? she’ll be saying as she rushes to find the sweeties… :rofl: :rofl:

I don’t know how it works in French but one of my bugbears in English is when, on a Wednesday for instance, someone says next Friday. To me that means the day after tomorrow, but they often mean Friday of next week. I am sure I am right, of course :roll_eyes:, but it can cause confusion.

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Something I have difficulty understanding is how a ‘fortnight’ becomes ‘une quinzaine’. I realise the speaker means fortnight but I always worry one of us may be a day out, so feel the need to say the date.

I blame the Romans.

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He does now. :heart_eyes:

:smile:

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So do I but, if you think about it, 14 nights, 15 days.
Thus Monday and Tuesday is 2 days, but one night.

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You’re right @David_Spardo I know but them my dyscalculia kicks in and I’m lost once more
:face_with_spiral_eyes:

In English you used to have a sennight (generous as an extra night) as well as a fortnight. We have semaine and quinzaine, very similar only counting days not nights

Never heard of that @vero , sounds a bit Scottish to me rather than English. Weren’t you educated in Scotland I seem to remember?

Old English for a week of 7 days and nights, sen I think is seven today? Pretty much the same as fortnight 14

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Excellent, I like that, I’m going to start using it right away. See you in a sennight. :rofl:

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Wonderful archaic word from @vero. If anyone is interested in the fascinating world if etymology, here is a good source:

On the subject but a wee diversion….I find some ‘interesting’ Americanisms in the official English test source Toeic. Explaining why ‘reach out’ is being used instead of ‘call’ for one. I realise languages evolve but longer in place of short and simple is, ‘interesting’. So, I said this is American English you might run in to. (Without ending my sentence on a preposition!)

“Reach out” is one of the terms I loathe because it has quite specific implications when used in the tradition English sense and sounds wierd to me when all it means is that I’ve made contact with someone… However, I ought not to post this because it’s way off topic and I deserve to be reprimanded but am doing it anyway :rofl:

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“passed” is one of the terms which irritate me… if someone’s died… they’ve died… :wink: :roll_eyes:
“reach out” has me singing… but I’m from a different generation…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EaflX0MWRo

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“passed” is one of the terms which irritates me… if someone’s died… they’ve died… :wink: :roll_eyes:
“reach out” has me singing… but I’m from a different generation…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EaflX0MWRo

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