"From" Phrases Regarding Time (. . . "from next month")

Question

It's my first time posting, so let me know if I do anything wrong.

I have a random question. It’s regarding #2. I told my student it’s fine, based on the primarily UK and Indian news articles I found with similar sentences, but it still sounds a bit weird to me. I don’t know if it’s my own idiolect or if it sounds strange to other people too.

1. I can give you money next month.

2. I can give you money from next month.

3. I can give you money from next month on/onward.

4. I can give you money a week from next month.

I think it may be because there is a semantic issue in my head, where #2 could possibly have two meanings:

• "from" = after (+ onwards), like in #3.

• "from" = “from”, as in the source of the noun (e.g. “I can give you money that I’ll have next month”/”I can give you next month’s money.”)

  • Even that second meaning sounds weird though. I think there’s more confusion in this with “from last month” (e.g. "I gave you money from last month"). So perhaps I’ve started avoiding this type of sentence with both “last” and “next” to avoid confusion, and thus find it strange to say.

I don’t know… The more I look at this, the more I become confused. Am I just going crazy?

Answer 1

Grammatically, "from" has three uses:
A. With a starting point
B. With an origin
C. As a range (from...to)

Additionally, "from" is a preposition meaning that it relates two nearby words. It is usually followed by the object (noun, pronoun, noun-phrase) that it is relating.

In the example 3 you gave, you are using "from" according to usage C, a range. You are relating giving to a range of time - when the money will be paid.

In the example 4 you gave, you are using "from" according to usage A, a starting point. You are relating a week to next month, and a time period compared to a time period works. (Though @Pam is right, "next month" is a little vague when trying to compute time.)

However example 2 is trickier; there's no range used with "from", so the usage would have to be either a starting point or an origin. Moreover, the two things being related are "money" and "next month." "Next month" doesn't directly or formally work as a source or origin of "money," which is why it sounds odd.

As @Pam mentioned though, it does work if you assume "next month" is a colloquialism for some sort of origin of money such as "next month's budget," "next month's paycheck," "the money I will have next month."