You're on the phone with someone and they say they'll call you later. What does that mean to you?

[IntravenousDemilo]

Does "later" mean later that same day, which it does to me, or something more open-ended?

When I'm talking to a businessperson in the morning and the person says, "I'll call later," I always assume it will be that afternoon, before they go home. If they say, "I'll call you tomorrow / by Friday / in a week," I kind of know what that means.

[IronLionZion]

1. open-ended but either same day or next day nt

[terrya]

2. Later means that same day.

"Later" doesn't mean 4 days ago. If someone wanted to impart that they'll do something 4 days from now, they should say "4 days from now". Later is that same day.

Oh, and...

SHMILY

[Orsino]

3. Context is all.

Might depend on how often this person usually calls you.

[CJCRANE]

4. I'll tell you later nt

[IntravenousDemilo]

5. Euhhhh....

:banghead:

[CJCRANE]

7. Sorry couldn't resist.

It depends who it was. Was it a woman you're interested in by any chance?

[IntravenousDemilo]

8. 'Sokay.

No, this was business-related. A couple of mornings ago, I was under time constraints and needed an important piece of information before I could proceed with what I was doing, so I called a particular company that shall remain anonymous, and the person didn't have the info, but she said she'd look it up and call me back "later". I'm still waiting. I thought the least I could expect is that if the info was particularly hard for her to locate, she'd have phoned me back anyway that afternoon to say that she couldn't find what I needed yet, but that she'd keep looking.



EDIT: too many "that"s.

[CJCRANE]

9. In that case

I think you're right, "later" should mean the same day.

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. Good question. Give me a moment, and I'll get back to you.