Nextis an adjective, an adverb or a pronoun.
Nextmeans the first thing or person immediately after the present thing or person:
Thenextperson she met was an old lady who had lived in the village all her life.(adjective)
There was a loud bang, and I can’t remember what happenednext.(adverb)
Each week is just like thenext: work, work, work.(pronoun)
Nextdoes not meannearest:
Can you tell me where thenearestsupermarket is please?
Not:Can you tell me where the next supermarket is please?
See also:
Nearestornext?
Nextas an adjective
Nextorthe next?
When we talk about days of the week, weeks, months, years, seasons or public holidays in the future in relation to now, we usenextwithouttheand without a preposition:
I have an appointment with the dentistnextWednesday morning.
Not: …the next Wednesday morning.
Are you workingnextweek?
Not:Are you working on next week?
Nextyear will be our fortieth wedding anniversary.
We’re going to plant some new flowersnextspring.
To refer to the future, we can usethe next few hours,the next two days,the next six months, etc.:
I’ll finish the work inthe next few days. You can pay me then.
We’ll be home forthe next three weeks, then we’re going away to France for two weeks.
When we talk about times in the past or future not related to now, we normally usethe. However, in informal situations, we can omitthewhen we talk about the past:
The next daywe travelled to the ancient city of Qom.
We’re going to spend the first night in Oslo, thenthe next daywe’ll fly to Narvik.
Two policemen grabbed me.Next minute, I was arrested and thrown into a van.
The next time
We can usethe next timeto refer to the past or to the future. In informal situations, we can omitthe:
We’ve been to Australia a few times. The first time we went it was work, thenthe next timewe went it was a mix of work and holiday.
The next timeyou’re in Ireland, you must come and visit us.
I saw him about five years ago and he was unemployed.Next timeI saw him he was driving a bus.(informal)
Nextas an adverb
[a group of children are waiting to ride a pony]
Adult:Whowants to gonext?
Child:Me!Me!
He said he was upset about the drama club, but I can’t remember what he saidnext.
Nextas a linking adjunct
We can usenextas a linking adjunct to refer to something which follows immediately after something before. We often use this when giving instructions:
To convert your old cassette tapes to CDs, first you will need a cable to connect your cassette player to your computer.Next, you will need some sort of software to convert your music to a digital format such as MP3.
Nextas a pronoun
We canusenextas a pronoun with or withoutthe:
Ollie’s coming to stay the week afternext.(the week after next week)
I don’t know how I’m going to manage from one day tothenext.
Next to
We can usenext tofor people or things that are very near or beside each other:
Can I sitnext toyou at the restaurant? There’s something I want to tell you.
We can also usenext towhen we are comparing things:
Next toEnglish, my best language is Spanish.(English is my best language, then Spanish.)
Next: typical error
When we saynext week, next summer, next August, etc., we don’t use apreposition:
I’m going awaynextWednesday.
Not:I’m going away on next Wednesday.