Talk:ago

First section

Surely "ago" , as in "20 years ago", is a postposition not an adverb?? — This unsigned comment was added by 124.19.0.118 (talk) at 22:55, 6 June 2009 (UTC).

In "20 years ago", ago is an adjective. In "a long time ago", it’s an adverb. —Stephen 23:31, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

"Postposition" is not used in traditional English grammar which is where English dictionaries get their word classes (parts of speech) from. Modern linguistics is much more open and diverse but has not affected how words are marked in dictionaries.

Our current way of dealing with it by using "Adjective" and "Adverb" as the heading but also having a "postpositions" category seems to be the perfect way of dealing with this. — hippietrail 01:04, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

At least that's what I thought we did but it seems to be a figment of my imagination (-: — hippietrail 01:07, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

There are languages that have mostly post- and rarely prepositions. Jcwf 01:10, 8 June 2009 (UTC), Tatar сыман is an example of that.

Glad to see I'm not the only one to come to this conclusion. I think we should list words based on actual usage. Adverbs are the class of words that directly modify verbs, and should fit into the following sentence: I did it xxxx (I did it well, I did it slowly, etc.). Since I did it ago is nonsense, it can't be an adverb. I realise that some pre- and postpositions can be used both alone and with an antecedent (i.e. off, inside), but in that case the words are listed as both preposition and adverb. ago certainly does not belong to that category however; it only ever appears with an antecedent. So if a word is used as a postposition, then that's what it should be listed as, plain and simple. --CodeCat 20:11, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

There are many types of adverbs. The examples you give are usually termed "adverbs of manner" which is an open class but many ancient common English words are adverbs of other types such as "here" and "never". — hippietrail 07:38, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

I know, but that doesn't change my point. Words like yesterday, before, somewhere, far away and pretty much any adverbial phrase would also fit in the place of the xxxx. --CodeCat 09:17, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

But then there are words like very which have a limited application: they only modify adjectives and adverbs. But I still think that you're right that ago is a postposition because it forms a phrase (e.g. "ten years ago") that acts as an adverb (states when something happened). —Internoob (Disc•Cont) 01:08, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

Relative to the speaker or relative to the subject?

If you say: "I met him a month ago" it is clear that "A month ago" means "A month before the very moment I am uttering this sentence".

But is the following correct? "I met him in January 2010 and he told me then he'd lost his job a month ago"

Now clearly, if used "A month ago" has to mean "A month before that time I met him in January 2010".

So my question is: Is this usage correct or should you say "I met him in January 2010 and he told me then he'd lost his job a month before"

Thanks

Basemetal (talk) 18:32, 31 January 2014 (UTC)

In that context, you'd have to use "before." "Ago" means one month before you are saying what you are saying, which naturally makes no sense. — This unsigned comment was added by 2601:194:837f:cf0:ac90:ed6d:51aa:2d96 (talk) at 19:25, 8 December 2018 (UTC).