Talk:last year

last year
SOP, compare last night, last November, last century --Tobby (talk) 01:18, 30 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Instinctively I feel it should be deleted, but there's at least some kind of grammar note that would be useful, since last day and last hour are not acceptable (why?) while last night, last year, last century, etc. are. See also our entry for last time. Equinox ◑ 01:21, 30 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Keep. last night was kept, so should be last year, both should also belong to Category:English non-idiomatic translation targets, adding now. --Anatoli (обсудить/вклад) 01:52, 30 January 2013 (UTC)
 * @Equinox: You raise interesting questions, possibly fraught with implications. I think that yesterday has prevented last day from taking hold, just as tomorrow has prevented next day from taking hold. I don't know why shorter periods of time (hour, minute, second) don't work with next, this, last in the senses under discussion. All the longer periods (week, fortnight(?), month, quarter, season, trimester, semester, half, year, decade, century, millennium seem to work with last, next, and this. (There are some partial exceptions to the rule.) Also time-interval words like shift, term, session work with next and last similarly. CGEL notes the phenomenon but does not suggest a reason.
 * As all the time-interval terms, except the definite short-interval ones follow a uniform system we really need usage notes - and entries!!! - at the small number of items that are exceptional in that they do not occur rather than the much larger number of time interval terms that do not follow the standard pattern. DCDuring TALK 03:31, 30 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Here's why "last hour" and "next hour" don't seem to work. Words like week and year can really refer to two different things: an amount of time or one of a sequence of periods of time. For example "week" can refer to an amount of time equal to seven days, or it can refer to a specific period of time between Sunday and Saturday. The words this, next, and last (and any other definite determiners) can only be used with the latter meaning (words such as ago are used with the former). The word hour, however, is almost exclusively used to mean an amount of 60 minutes (thus, we say "an hour ago" rather than "last hour"). But the phrases this hour, next hour, and last hour can be used in certain contexts. They can be used in contexts where hour does have a meaning of a specific period of time. For example, on television or radio, an hour often refers to a period from X:00 to X:59, thus we hear things like "Join us next hour for an interview with John Doe." or "Last hour, we talked a lot about foo. This hour, we will focus on how foo relates to bar." Thus, last year and the others are clearly SOP, thus strong delete. We might want to put a usage note on this, last, and next, saying that they are usually avoided in combination with day, in favor of today, yesterday, and tomorrow, respectively. And also at this and next, that they are usually avoided in combination with night, in favor of tonight and tomorrow night. --WikiTiki89 05:36, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

Note that this was already kept as no-consensus. See the discussion. &#x200b;—msh210℠ (talk) 06:18, 30 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Keep, but replace definition with . — Ungoliant (Falai) 06:28, 30 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Keep as a translation target. There are too many languages with idiomatic ways of saying this for me to want the page gathering them all to disappear. —Angr 21:04, 30 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Keep per Anatoli and (edited by user:biblbroks - actually I'm not sure if the same reasons as for last night apply) Angr. And replace with translation only--biblbroksдискашн 22:16, 30 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Keep.Matthias Buchmeier (talk) 22:42, 30 January 2013 (UTC)
 * I'm with Ungoliant MMDCCLXIV on this one. Mglovesfun (talk) 22:43, 31 January 2013 (UTC)

kept but tagged -- Liliana • 07:20, 19 April 2013 (UTC)