Naturally, the phrase most often heard while riding public transportation is "nākamā pietura" (next stop). In an e-mail to a linguaphile friend, who had visited Latvia when it was still a Soviet republic, I referred to the next city in my itinerary using "nākamā pietura".
He got confused, because he remembered the phrase as "nākoša pietura".
(nākoša/nākamā are feminine forms of nākošais/nākamāis)
An explanation of the difference I was given is that "nākošais" is active (~"approaching"), while "nākamāis" is passive (~"being approached"), and as bus stops don't move by themselves, "nākamāis" is formally more correct. I've heard people still saying "nākoša pietura". I wonder what prompted the change in pre-recorded messages and when.
Does anyone know?
