I’m continuing to struggle with the meanings of the time-related vocab words that use 近. Specifically, 近 carries the general meaning of “near” in either space or time, but 近年, 最近, and 近頃 all have meanings relating to the near past, while 近日, 近々, and 近く have meanings relating to the near future. In my reviews, I am perpetually mixing up soon, recent, etc. E.g., 近年 means recent years, but 近日 means coming days, rather than recent days.
Does anyone have a good memory aid for keeping these straight, beyond just brute force memorization?
I’d also welcome memory aids for any other groups of related vocab words you’ve found difficult.
I don’t really have a mnemonic that I use, but these vocab words will be a lot easier to remember if you read enough of them in context. Because the distinction is between near past and near future, 近年, 最近, and 近頃 will pretty much always be used in the past tense. 近日, 近々, and 近くwill in turn be in present tense (although 近く can also mean “close” as in physical distance and therefore usable in past tense, but again the context of a sentence would make that distinction easier).
Maybe you could make a mnemonic using these tenses? Something like「最近、近年、近頃あった。近日、近々、近くある。」
I wonder why Wanikani makes so much big a deal out of getting past/future correctly, because I do not think the words themselves have a past, present or future. it’s just “near days” and “near years” and if the sentence is in the past tense it is in the past.
最近、太ってきた. (I have gained weight lately).
ニュースによると近日雪が降る (According to the news it will snow coming days) 近年旅行することにした (I have started travelling recent years)
But I don’t know if this helps at all. It’s best to understand the usage of the word rather than only its meaning. I recommend looking at the “context” tab in Wanikani which contains example sentences. In Japanese the context is often important to fully grasp the meaning of a word since there often isn’t a literal translation.
I don’t believe that is correct, at least for most of these words. Quoting the Daijisen JJ dictionary with my translations:
最近: 現在より少し前のある時。また、少し前から現在までの間。
The time slightly before the present. Also the period of time running from slightly before now up to the present.
近年: 最近の数年間。ここ数年。
The most recent few years (we know it’s past because we just saw the definition of 最近).
The Daijisen definition for 近日 is unfortunately less clear on the point:
近日: 近いうち。ちかぢか。
But both EDICT and Progressive list only “soon” or “in a few days”. 日本国語大辞典 does list also a “past few days” sense, but I think that dictionary may tend to list also obsolete/obscure senses, so given the others aren’t listing that sense I would be cautious absent a confirmation from a native speaker.
It is of course true that you can usually figure the past/future question out from the tense of the sentence, in the same way that in English you don’t need to know that “recently” means near past, not near future, to know that “it’s been cold recently” is a statement about the past. But that doesn’t mean the words themselves have no past/future associated with them. And sometimes you don’t get to use that trick; for instance 最近どう？ is unambiguously a (casual) question about how things have been for you in the recent past, not about the future, even though there’s no tensed verb/copula in the sentence as spoken.
I agree with pm215 here. I appreciate your point that the tense of the sentence could help determine the future/past nature of the word in context, but the definitions in my dictionary app all agree with the WK definitions. It would appear that each word’s definition actually is aimed at either a future meaning or a past meaning, rather than simply a “near” meaning to be determined by context. Also, the three example sentences you quoted are all consistent with the provided definitions, so the WK context pages don’t appear to contradict or broaden the provided definitions.
I always check the context page! There are many words that aren’t clear from the “meaning” page alone.
I have something that might help? Or at least clear a little of it up.
I see 近日 specifically as an exception, with the others making sense (in fact, 近日 in Chinese follows the rule I’ve come up with - it means “in recent days” there).
近く and 近々 are adverbs, both meaning “nearly” (technically 近々 is only used for nearly in the time sense, but humor me for a second). “Nearly” in English cannot refer to something in the recent past. You can have a deadline “nearly due”, your WaniKani reviews “nearly ready”, the apocalypse “nearly upon us”, but you can’t do this in the past tense. The past doesn’t have the same sense of urgency - nearly can be used in a figurative sense only because the time feels close - in terms of creeping up on you.
When referring to time in a jukugo, 近 tends to take on a meaning of “recent”, rather than “soon”. I don’t know why this is, but you can at least memorize it.
As for 近日? I’ve got nothing. Sorry.
