Für mich ist auch das "nächste Wochenende" das nächste ab heute gerechnet, also in 3 Tagen. Allerdings führt dieser Begriff auch in Deutschland gelegentlich zu Konfusionen. Das "kommende Wochenende" wird auch gern benutzt, ist etwas unmissverständlicher.
Aber wieso wird in England next weekend = übernächstes Wochenende verstanden?

Vielfältige Quelle von Missverständnissen auch zwischen Deutsch-Muttersprachlern!:

"dieses Wochenende" --> kann das gerade vergangene Wochenende oder das nächste kommende meinen

"nächstes Wochenende" --> kann das nächste kommende oder das Wochenende der nächsten vollen Woche meinen.

Ich weiß nicht, ob die Unterschiede regional bedingt sind.

Fazit: am besten immer nachfragen.

I am surprised by Bob's assertion that someone in England would think he meant in 10 days' time. I wouldn't think that. To me, "next weekend" means just that, not "the end of next week".

@escoville, What would you say if you were coming this following weekend? I'd say "I'm coming this weekend" or "this coming weekend".

Man kann auch im Deutschen zwischen "diesem" (dem unmittelbar bevorstehenden) und "nächstem Wochenende" (dem danach) unterscheiden. Ich merke, dass ich mich bei einer Antwort aber nicht festnageln lassen möchte. M.E. variiert der Gebrauch und ich würde im Zweifelsfall immer zu Nachfragen raten.

Z.B. würde ich an einem Freitag "nächstes Wochende" auch klar als das verstehen, dass eine Woche später beginnt, an einem Montag eher das unmittelbar in 4 Tagen folgende. An einem Donnerstag wäre ich auf jeden Fall unsicher und würde unbedingt selbst nachfragen.

Bob, I;m interested by what you say because I'm Scottish and I would say what you say, i.e. this coming weekend/this weekend and next weekend (in 10 days time), but I was led to believe that people in England used the same terminology as the Germans i.e. the next weekend being the weekend coming. This works for "last weekend," too, as I will thank back to the "vorletztes Wochenende," whereas others may be referring to the weekend that just happened.

I will relativize what I said. If it were Monday. Tuesday or Wednesday, I would think that "this weekend" and "next weekend" were the same. If it were Friday I wouldn't. On Thursday there's room for misunderstanding.

In amendment to my last post, I would probably say "What are you doing at the weekend?" on any day of the week to mean the weekend coming, and "what did you do at the weekend?" to mean the one just gone.

Matt, until escoville posted I didn't realise that the English used different expressions to those which I do. My granny was Scottish and I speak to a lot of Scots, but I don't think I've been influenced by this in regards to my "next weekend" usage.

@Runaway,

I would understand next weekend as being in a weeks time because you say next week and next weekend is the end of the next week.

We've definitely discussed this problem before, though I have no idea how to find the old thread. As I recall, there turned out to be absolutely no consensus either among English speakers or among German speakers; the concept 'next' is just ambiguous.

I personally prefer to distinguish between 'this (coming) weekend' (the 16th-17th) and 'next / the following weekend' (the 23rd-24th), but you can't really count on anyone else's being on the same wavelength.

I have given up on using "next weekend" or "naechstes weekend"; it always leads to confusion, even with my best friends. I say "this weekend" or "the weekend in 10 days" and "dieses Wochende" or "das Wochenende in 10 Tagen". And whenever someone uses the term "next weekend" or "naechstes Wochenende", I ask them immediately which of the two weekends they mean. Life is too short to find an agreement on the meaning of "next weekend"/"naechstes Wochenende".

I do think that for 'in 10 Tagen' you need to say '10 days from now,' in case that helps ... (-:

What would "in 10 days" mean then?