I keep getting the meaning of these words wrong 年内-年来 -年中

[scarrera]

年内
年来
年中

Whenever these guys show up it’s a sure miss for me. It’s ever worse cause they introduced close to each other… I’ve tried writing them down, writing some phrases but still miss them. I keep getting the meaning confused with each others.

Help?

[Delphynia]

I’m going through the same words right now! I try reading them super literally like:
年内 is literally year (年) inside (内). So, I know it’s inside the year. Which means, it’s before the year is over because it has to happen at some point inside the year not next year.
年中 is literally year (年) middle (中). So, I know it has nothing to do with the end of the year like 内. Which helps me to remember that it’s all year.
Anytime there’s kanji that are really close together I sit and talk myself through it each time like this until it starts clicking in my brain. I’m also a very visual/auditory learner so, thinking out loud helps me remember.
Do you know what kind of learner you are? Maybe I can help brainstorm a method that would work for your type of learning.

[Jonapedia]

Just gonna repost some of my old answers:

年内 vs 年中 Help!

This is probably gonna be one of my rare short answers: 年内: ‘within the year’ 年中: ‘throughout the year’ You’ll find that both of these line up with other uses of 内 and 中, including in similar compounds. If that’s not enough because you haven’t been exposed to much Japanese yet, and you need an extra boost, then try this: I said ‘throughout’, right? Doesn’t the central stroke in 中 go through it? No such thing for 内, but I mean, you could say that the 人 is within the 冂. I hope that helps.

https://community.wanikani.com/t/need-advice-for-a-poll-i-like-part-1/50442/3644?u=jonapedia

@Jonapedia

As for why 年来 means ‘for the past few years’… what goes before modifies what comes after. It helps if you’ve seen more of these 〜来 patterns, but they’re far more common in Chinese (which I speak) than in Japanese, so I guess it’s no surprise if you haven’t seen them. In any case, here’s one way of looking at it: it’s a sort of ‘coming’, but what kind? It’s characterised by ‘year(s)’, so it’s a ‘year coming’.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t make a ton of sense: why not ‘a yearly coming’ then? So… I’ll have to explain it using Chinese grammar. How I see it, personally, is that 年 indicates a sort of starting point or duration: ‘coming (down over the) year(s)/from some years ago’. I think the most intuitive, literal English translation would be something like ‘it’s been some years coming’. Not exactly the same thing, but similar because it indicates that something has been happening for a few years.

I hope some of that is helpful.

[Tenugui]

内 and 中 always cause a lot of confusion.

内 means inside, but it’s focus is the contrast between inside and outside.
年内 is within a year because you can’t go outside.

中 means inside, but it’s focus is on what’s happening inside. It also means duration, especially when given the じゅう reading.
年中 is what’s happening for the duration of a year, which makes it year round.

来 means come, but it’s focus is on the future, what’s happening next.
来年 therefore becomes next year
年来 is for about the years coming up, or several years.

[armofpilot]

年中 - for this one 中 just kind of looks round to me so I was able to latch on to year round.