Just how long does, "Later" mean to you?

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Just how long does, "Later" mean to you?

Postby drp9341 » Wed Apr 08, 2020 9:56 pm

I had a discussion with someone from the midwest who said that later can mean in 2, 3, 5 , or 1000 minutes. For me though, it means more than 30mins into the future. If I will do something in less than ~30 minutes I'll say, "in a little bit" or "In a minute."

Is this just a New York thing? An idiosyncrasy?

You often hear Spanish learners complain about the varying meanings of "ahora" and "ahorita"

What do other native speakers think? I tried asking a few people but they don't really understand the question or can't really give me a straight answer. Therefore, I'm bringing this question to the "linguistically aware" folks.

If you're a native speaker of English, say where you're from, and what "LATER" means to you.

If someone says "I'll call you later" I don't expect a phone call for at least an hour, not 5 minutes after having hung up lol.
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Re: Just how long does, "Later" mean to you?

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Wed Apr 08, 2020 10:42 pm

Interesting topic!

I'm not a native speaker of English. When I use such time expressions, the exact meaning depends on the situation, and possibly the person I'm talking to.

See you/Talk to you later. - "in a while" / after lunch / later the same day
Is N here yet? No, she'll come in later. - several hours later, but the same day.


Which of these is shortest?

later / in a while / in a bit / in a minute / in a second

(Where is soon on the scale?

Talk to you soon. - it feels longer than any of the above, and could mean days or weeks.)
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Re: Just how long does, "Later" mean to you?

Postby jmar257 » Wed Apr 08, 2020 10:45 pm

Speaking as a Southerner, I'd have to agree with OP. Maybe others down here differ, but I can't picture myself saying I'd do something later if I meant I'd do it in 5 minutes. That'd be in a bit/second/minute. Later would be after I'd finished what I'm currently doing, or something else, or even an indefinite point of time in the future.
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Re: Just how long does, "Later" mean to you?

Postby sporedandroid » Wed Apr 08, 2020 10:52 pm

It really depends on the context for me.
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Re: Just how long does, "Later" mean to you?

Postby tarvos » Wed Apr 08, 2020 11:52 pm

Later is definitely not soon, and not within a few minutes. I might even just say it with the intent of going "at some point in the future" meaning never, because I can't be arsed.

Canuck here.
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Re: Just how long does, "Later" mean to you?

Postby SCMT » Wed Apr 08, 2020 11:56 pm

I once had a native of Mexico explain to me that in his country, "mañana" meant "not today."

In that spirit, I think "later" means "not now."
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Re: Just how long does, "Later" mean to you?

Postby drp9341 » Thu Apr 09, 2020 12:15 am

jeff_lindqvist wrote:Interesting topic!

I'm not a native speaker of English. When I use such time expressions, the exact meaning depends on the situation, and possibly the person I'm talking to.

See you/Talk to you later. - "in a while" / after lunch / later the same day
Is N here yet? No, she'll come in later. - several hours later, but the same day.


Which of these is shortest?

later / in a while / in a bit / in a minute / in a second

(Where is soon on the scale?

Talk to you soon. - it feels longer than any of the above, and could mean days or weeks.)


I'd say (from the shortest to the longest) in a second, in a minute, in a bit
** "A minute" (not in a minute) in urban slang, (used by all races as far as I can tell,) can mean a long time relatively, for example, "What's this mo***r f**** doin' in the bathroom. Dude's been in there for a minute." I heard this in other parts of the USA as well, I guess it was spread by rap music.

Or... "Nah he didn't just start, he's been working over there for a minute."
Translation: "No he did not start recently, he has been working there for some time now."

** I never really say in a while, and I think that depends heavily on context. If you're cooking and you say, "In a while, it'll start to boil" that means that there's probably a sizeable chunk of time (relative to the activity at hand, so if it's a 15-minute meal, that could be 6 minutes.) Or it could be years if you're talking about real estate or something.

Soon (for me) follows the same rules as "in a while" but maybe it's a bit sooner, meaning that it might happen before you've finished the current task. I'm sort of making this up, I'm not really sure. I'd have to pay attention to myself speaking for a while. (damn I thought twice about whether or not "in a while" was correct. I wrote it automatically, and then got all confused hahaha,) In the above sentence though, I was thinking of a period of days, so that's one example from my subconscious if that helps, even though we're not talking about that particular usage.
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Re: Just how long does, "Later" mean to you?

Postby Iversen » Thu Apr 09, 2020 9:03 am

I would say: everything beyond "immediately" would be later - including "never".
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Re: Just how long does, "Later" mean to you?

Postby jeffers » Thu Apr 09, 2020 12:41 pm

This reminds me of a joke in India that if a shop assistant tells you the owner is "just coming" he can mean:
He's coming in the next 5-15 minutes
He could be here any time in the next few hours
He actually died last week.



Edit: for those interested in the phrase, "just coming" is standard Indian English for coming soon. I believe you can get away with using it anywhere in the English-speaking world but it wouldn't be a go-to phrase. Its use in Indian English probably comes from the Hindi आने वाला aane vaalaa, meaning "just about to come".
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Re: Just how long does, "Later" mean to you?

Postby ArchieXxXYzz » Wed Oct 13, 2021 12:48 pm

Semantic: ‘I will return later’ is true if and only if I will return later. In this regard, there is somewhat feeling that the act of returning is predictable. We may think of it this way since the way it was spoken implies just returning later. When we talk about later, we don't mean shortly or within a few minutes. However, it may be anticipated that the concept of "later" can be done or performed within a specific time frame, such as a day, weeks, or months.
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