17.1 Time Expressions II (Month)

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We use the following structure to mean ‘last month, this month, next month, etc.’. This structure is similar to the one we learned in Grammar and Vocabulary 16.1.

上上 soeng6 soeng6 (‘last last’, literally ‘up up’)	個 go3 (Classifier)	月 jyut6 (‘month; moon’)
上 soeng6 (‘last’, literally ‘up’)
今 gam1 (‘this’, literally ‘now’) 呢 ni1 / nei1 (‘this’)
下 haa6 (‘next’, literally ‘down’)
下下 haa6 haa6 (‘next next’, literally ‘down down’)

Below are the possible combinations.

1.	上上個月	soeng6 soeng6 go3 jyut6	last last month
2.	上個月	soeng6 go3 jyut6	last month
3.	今個月	gam1 go3 jyut6	this month
	呢個月	ni1 go3 jyut6
		nei1 go3 jyut6
4.	下個月	haa6 go3 jyut6	next month
5.	下下個月	haa6 haa6 go3 jyut6	next next month

If we want to indicate the day, we put the day after the month.

上個月十六號
soeng6 go3 jyut6 sap6 luk6 hou6
the 16th of last month

下個月一號
haa6 go3 jyut6 jat1 hou6
the 1st of next month

We put a time expression before the verb we want to modify.

我下個月去英國。
ngo5 haa6 go3 jyut6 heoi3 jing1 gwok3.
I will go to the UK next month.
The time expression 下個月 haa6 go3 jyut6 (‘next month’) is put before the verb 去 heoi3 (‘to go’).