Meet monday v Meet on Monday
Why do Americans not use a preposition when talking about days of the week? “We’ll meet Monday” has an “on” “before” “after” or “during” missing. You can’t meet Monday unless it is a person or a thing; as it is a unit of time there should be a preposition; One doesn’t “meet 4 o’clock” but one may “meet at 4 o’clock” and so you do “not meet Monday” but “on Monday”.
tim
October 7, 2009, 12:54pm
Ignorance and laziness?
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D (unregistered)
November 4, 2008, 10:27am
in general i'd say let's meet AT 4 o'clock, and not let's meet 4 o'clock.
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salgalador
October 2, 2008, 8:37am
I'm not a linguist, not even a native speaker of the language, but it seems to me that the reason "let's meet 4 o'clock" is acceptable and not "let's meet 4" can be sorted out at a simple semantic level of interpretation (or am I being too plain?) I reckon the former does not lend itself to ambiguity, while the latter might.
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Anonymous (unregistered)
September 22, 2008, 10:39am
Actually, I hear "let's meet 4 o'clock" all the time, at least in casual speech. If Monday can be an adverb, why can't 4 o'clock be one as well? They're both instances or periods of time. Interestingly, I hear "let's meet at 4", but never hear "let's meet 4."
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Matt Griffin (unregistered)
September 22, 2008, 12:50am
Sounds like a hold over from the ablative in Latin to me.
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Brian Devine (unregistered)
September 17, 2008, 1:28pm
An adverb or adverbial phrase is required to complete the idea - when are we going to meet? The question is whether the day of the week is being used as a noun or as an adverb. It can be used both ways. If it is used as an adverb in and of itself, no preposition is required. If it is used as a noun, a preposition is required to create an adverbial phrase. Some of the other examples, e.g. "4 o'clock" are not commonly accepted as being capable per se of use as adverbs, and therefore must be used within an adverbial phrase.
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David Calman (unregistered)
September 16, 2008, 12:55am
So, would you meet today? Or, would you meet ON today? Also, would you have met yesterday, or ON yesterday?
That message was spam. SPAAAAAAM!!!!
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David Calman (unregistered)
September 16, 2008, 12:52am
Here is season two on PITE.
Meet Monday? Meet Monday?!? It must be Meet ON Monday!!
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jedwardcooper (unregistered)
September 11, 2008, 8:15pm
meet + noun
or
meet + noun phrase
is common
We will meet next week
They met yesterday.
She meets my needs.
BUT
We will meet on the 14th
Shall we meet at 2?
We met in 1998
HOWEVER
We will meet in February
AND
We will meet next February
NEVER
We will meet February
So with proper names such as months and days of the week, use the preposition
Perhaps in an effort to make our sentences "quicker" when we speak, as American-English speakers are wont to do, we drop the "on" and say "meet Monday".
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Chris (unregistered)
September 2, 2008, 10:52am
meet on Monday
meet Monday
Both of these are acceptable. In the second case, "Monday" is an adverb like "today" or "tomorrow".
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hglover (unregistered)
September 2, 2008, 10:42am
So, would you meet today? Or, would you meet ON today? Also, would you have met yesterday, or ON yesterday?
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