Hi,

If you have a time phrase like 'next year's' in possessive, should I put the word 'the' before it or should I not? I checked an online source and it seems to show both cases in frequent use. That's true.

interested in (the??) next year's convention  The thinking here, I think, is that it is the convention that belongs to next year.

However, there can be some room for confusion in saying 'the next year'. When we say simply 'next year', we are speaking of the year following the present year. When we say 'the next year', it usually means the year following some other year that we have previously mentioned. Consider these examples.

Example 1  Bye, Tom. I'll see you at next year's convention.

Example 2  Hi, Tom. The last tome i saw you was in 2003. I didn''t see you when I went to the next year's convention. Were you sick?

Best wishes, Clive