Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

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Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

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”.

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Ignorance and laziness?

Tim3 Oct-07-2009

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in general i'd say let's meet AT 4 o'clock, and not let's meet 4 o'clock.

D1 Nov-04-2008

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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.

Marcelo1 Oct-02-2008

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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."

anonymous4 Sep-22-2008

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Sounds like a hold over from the ablative in Latin to me.

Matt_Griffin Sep-22-2008

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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.

Brian_Devine Sep-17-2008

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So, would you meet today? Or, would you meet ON today? Also, would you have met yesterday, or ON yesterday?

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David_Calman Sep-16-2008

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Here is season two on PITE.

Meet Monday? Meet Monday?!? It must be Meet ON Monday!!

David_Calman Sep-16-2008

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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".

jedwardcooper Sep-11-2008

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meet on Monday
meet Monday

Both of these are acceptable. In the second case, "Monday" is an adverb like "today" or "tomorrow".

bubbha Sep-02-2008

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So, would you meet today? Or, would you meet ON today? Also, would you have met yesterday, or ON yesterday?

hglover Sep-02-2008

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