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In a tutorial, I came across following syntax in which I had to identify a grammatical mistake in one of the four sections- 

 By April next year / I will have been / working in this office / for twenty years.

The hints says that error is in first section and there is no need to use Year as next holds the sense of year in itself.

So, my question is
* Is there indeed a mistake in first section
* If so can anyone explain why this is a mistake as I have seen many syntax like By the time next year ...

Thanks

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  • 4
    The sentence you wrote is fine. You could write "By next April" instead. I think that is what the hint is suggesting when it says "next" can hold the sense of "year."
    – Will Murphy
    Commented Sep 11, 2014 at 18:32
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    May also be a varieties-of-English usage; I have seen something like "Tuesday next" or "April next" in Commonwealth English (only web cite I could find was Indian English though). This is an alternative form of "next Tuesday". Nothing wrong with "April next year" and "By next / I will have been..." is not comprehensible to me.
    – Tiercelet
    Commented Sep 11, 2014 at 20:49
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    It's a bad tutorial. Idiomatically, a minority of native speakers will refer to Friday next, April next, etc., but that's really "geek speak". The vast majority will put the word next before the relevant noun.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Sep 11, 2014 at 20:49
  • The tutorial says that correct answer is `By April next / I will have been / working in this office / for twenty years.'
    – Atur
    Commented Sep 12, 2014 at 4:21
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    It's wrong. It should say "By next April" or "By April next year".
    – user230
    Commented Sep 12, 2014 at 10:59

1 Answer 1

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You suggest that 

 By the time next year...

Is syntax you have seen before. Using "the" in this phrase is ambiguous because it is unclear to what time you are referring. It is fully correct to say

 By this time next year...

because "this time" clearly refers to the current moment of discussion.

However, the given sentence clearly contains "April". It is a good practice to avoid changing content when fixing grammar, so we should maintain the "April" because it may have importance in context.

The given statement

 By April next year...

is unclear and possibly redundant. Saying

 By next April...

prevents the year redundancy. You may assume that your audience knows the calendar and will recognize that April won't occur again during this calendar year.

The statement becomes unclear if it is currently before April this year. Pretend that it is currently March. Saying

  By next April...

will suggest the event in question is only 1 month away.

In this case you should maintain fully disambiguated content

 By April 2015...

TLDR: The given statement is somewhat confusing and redundant. Use "By next April" to be concise and clear.

Edit: There seems to be confusion about post positive adjectives.

 By next April...
 By April next...

Adjectives that occur after the noun they modify are not common in English, even though they are, technically, grammatically correct. Generally you want to place adjectives first unless you have a good reason. It is possible that your question leaves the post positive adjective because it is the grammatical change that least affects the flow and content of the original sentence.

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  • I've heard exactly one person speak with the order switched, and it was a character in a play who was intentionally written to be extremely posh and out-of-touch with modern language.
    – anon
    Commented Sep 14, 2016 at 4:58

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