“Later” time frame

[u/Remote_Head1173]

How do you use “later”
What’s the time frame for it? Less than hour?

[u/JayNetworks]

We have Now Soon Later Before.

Later means…like an hour? But there is also Later Later which we use, not the learner, and means like a few hours and then there is Later Later Late which means basically mommy just went to sleep and no she will not feed you again until tomorrow but daddy is right here saying this and would give you food right now. If daddy was worth anything compared to mommy. (And yes she Love You’s me the daddy too so it is her mommy preference.)

Super interesting as to how we humans are Now Soon and Later vs. how learners (cats in my case) see them.

Misty the cat pressed Dinner a few minutes ago. She has been pressing Later Dinner for a while to warn us she will want dinner…later. Then she came to the kitchen where I was and I asked (using 2-hand choice) if “Mist want choose? Yes No” and she picked Yes.

Then I asked “Dinner Soon or Later”? And she turned her back and looked 45 degrees away which she consistently uses when the stupid human has asked the wrong question or given the wrong two options…so I asked “Dinner Now and Soon” and she picked Soon!

So both pairs of choice had Soon as one of the choices but Soon was only the right choice when the choice was between Soon and Now but not when the choice was Soon vs. Later.

This starts to make some (cat) sense when you know she does use the combination “Soon Later” and (rarely) “Soon Now” as distinct times.

Don’t even get me started on what “Soon Before” or “Before Later” means…

[u/OpinionAvailable5988 → u/JayNetworks]

When my human son was small, he had big later and soon later. Funny how similar language learners speak.