La prochaine

NabeelC1Kwiziq community member

La prochaine

 Je vais à l'université la prochaine année is considered wrong, while l’année prochaine is considered right. Explain please. 

Asked 5 years ago
ChrisC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Hi Nabeel,

this is a very good question and got me thinking.

prochain before the noun somehow implies the next within a sequence.
prochain after the noun implies the temporally next occurrence.

Here is an example. Suppose you're sitting in a meeting which convenes every other Monday (i.e., every two weeks). Then someone says either of the two sentences below:

On en parlera plus prochain lundi. -- This refers to the next Monday on which the meeting will reconvene, i.e., Monday in two weeks.

On en parlera plus lundi prochain. -- In this case the speaker refers to the Monday immediately following the meeting.

I hope that makes sense. Certainly, this topic would benefit from the input of a native speaker.

-- Chris (not a native speaker).

La prochaine

 Je vais à l'université la prochaine année is considered wrong, while l’année prochaine is considered right. Explain please. 

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