Two weeks later? When?
Hello, and welcome to today's episode of the Gold Forest English Podcast. My name is Jordan, and today I want to talk about something that quite a few students get confused about. In fact, I had two or three students just this week who were confused about these phrases in English. The phrases are all about time and talking about future time in particular. So let's have a look at these different phrases -why- talk about why they are different, and give some examples of how to use them.
So the phrases that I want to talk about are in two weeks, two weeks later, and over the next two weeks so these three phrases - they are very common in English and they're very useful and we use them quite often, but they can be a little bit confusing because they are quite similar, so let's think about the differences between in two weeks, two weeks later and over the next two weeks.
Okay. The first one we'll start with is in two weeks. So this is the one that most people want to use. This is the one that is most uh most helpful, most convenient, most useful - in two weeks means starting today, plus two weeks - talking about this future time, so we're talking about a time two weeks after today. So if today is April 10, if I talk about something will happen in two weeks, then that means that I'm talking about April 24. That's 14 days in the future - in two weeks - today's April 10 then in two weeks will be April 24. So this is the most common one and most useful. We say things like “next week I can't come to school so I will see you in two weeks.” I have a weekly lesson. “I can't come to school next week so I will see you in two weeks.” This is a very useful one, but many, many students get confused between this and two weeks later.
So let's talk about two weeks later. Two weeks later means two weeks after an event, two weeks after an action, two weeks after a time and it might be a time in the future or it might be a time in the past, but it's not right now. We don't really use this for talking about today plus two weeks. We would talk about a time in the future or a time in the past. Let's look at some examples. If we're doing two weeks later to talk about something in the future, we might say for example “next week I will go to Paris and two weeks later I will go to Italy.” So in the future I will go to Paris and then two weeks after I go to Paris I will go to Italy. That's not two weeks from today - it's two weeks after I go to Paris. We can also use two weeks later to talk about the past. For example, “Last month I went to Paris and two weeks later I went to Italy.” So: same actions, but it might be in the past, and the two weeks later is two weeks after this first past action first past event Okay, so in two weeks is about from today, two weeks later is from a future time or from a past time, but we don't really use it from today.
The last phrase is over the next two weeks, so this is a phrase again, a little bit different over the next two weeks means starting today and continuing or repeating for two weeks. So it starts today and it finishes in two weeks Again today, April 10 it will continue and finish on April 24. Over the next two weeks, so this is talking about actions that either continue and do not stop until two weeks or actions that repeat again and again and again and stop after two weeks. So, for example, “I have an important test coming up at school, so I will study hard over the next two weeks.” So starting today I will study again and again and again - extra studying and after two weeks of studying, I will stop studying because I will do my test. I will not have to study more. My test will happen. So over the next two weeks is talking about continuing or repeated actions that go over a period of time.
So those are our three phrases. The most important one is in two weeks. “I'll see you in two weeks.” “I will go there in two weeks.” “I will buy a new pair of shoes in two weeks.” Talking about an event that will happen two weeks after today. So starting today looking forward into the future.
The next phrase was two weeks later, talking about two weeks after a specific time, a specific action may be in the future or maybe in the past. “She bought a new hand bag last month and two weeks later she lost it.” So two weeks after she bought it, she lost it
And the final one was over the next two weeks, which is the repeated continuing actions starting from today and continuing for two weeks. “I have an important surgery coming up next month in the hospital. I have to have surgery, so over the next two weeks I have to eat only fruits and vegetables and bread. I can't have any meat” - for example.
Okay, so I hope that helped clear things up a little bit as always, there's a full blog post on the website and I've posted a infographic image on their school Instagram. That's Gold Forest Academy on the Instagram if you want a little image. All right. Well… I won't see you in two weeks…well, I will. I will see you in two weeks, but I'll also see you next week. Thank you very much for listening. Goodbye.