Tomorrow afternoon / tomorrow in the afternoon

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Alex+

#575962 Mon, 13 Oct 08 03:48 PM

Which sentences are correct?

1. I’ll be busy tomorrow afternoon. / I’ll be busy tomorrow in the afternoon.
2. I was busy yesterday afternoon. / I was busy yesterday in the afternoon.

Alex+

Joined on Wed, Apr 11 2007

Full Member (224)

Clive

#575963 Mon, 13 Oct 08 04:10 PM

Hi,

All these are OK.

'Tomorrow/yesterday afternoon' is the common expression.

If you are talking about 'today', say 'this afternoon'.

Clive

Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004

Canada

Veteran Member (22,480)

El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo

Expressions

CalifJim

#576460 Wed, 15 Oct 08 04:15 AM

I greatly prefer the first of each pair. The second strikes me (and others, I'm sure) as somewhat unidiomatic.

In the case of "today", the second phrasing is not at all idiomatic. A co-worker of mine, not a native speaker, used to drive me crazy with such comments as "Today in the morning I got a call from the engineering department". Another, from another country, insisted on "Today morning", which was even worse!

I don't know why, but "yesterday morning, this afternoon, tomorrow morning, this morning", etc., seem very difficult for non-natives to remember and use! It's a puzzle!

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (17,714)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Clive

#576462 Wed, 15 Oct 08 04:24 AM

Hi,

I wouldn't consider 'I'll be busy tomorrow in the morning' to be unidiomatic, although 'tomorrow morning' is much more common, as I said.

However, I'd often expect 'I'll be busy tomorrow in the morning' to be followed by an explicit (or not followed by an implicit Smile

) 'but not in the afternoon',

ie I'll be busy tomorrow in the morning but not in the afternoon'.

Best wishes, Clive

Clive

CalifJim

#576849 Thu, 16 Oct 08 04:52 AM

I was talking about the cases when the speaker actually means tomorrow morning and says tomorrow in the morning thinking it means tomorrow morning, as in

I have a dental appointment at 10 o'clock tomorrow (*in the) morning.

I've noticed that such speakers do not even have tomorrow morning in their vocabulary. They never use it. And they invariably use the analog *today in the morning all over the place.

CalifJim

Vocabulary