I get stuck on vocabulary like 先月. I got it wrong many times even though I know what it means. You have to type “month before last”… I type “last month” or “one month previous” etc… It’s frustrating to have to remember the exact phrase… but I guess it’s the only way.
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Month before last is not 先月 it is 先々月.
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I personally disagree that “last month” and “month before last” are the same but
You can add a user synonym if you tend to use a differerent phrasing than WK does.
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先月 is last month though?
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Like the others said just try to pay attention to whether there’s a 々 or not.
先月 【せんげつ】- last month
先々月 【せんせんげつ・先先月】- month before last
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It might make more sense to think of it as 2 months ago, and the first one 1 month ago.
So it’d be like
先月 【せんげつ】- one month ago (last month)
先々月 【せんせんげつ・先先月】- two months ago (month before last)
You can also add a user defined synonym if you find it easier to remember it this way.
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Thanks everybody… I see!
I was wrong on the meaning…
But I’m also glad to know I can add a different phrasing.
But I have to be careful to add a correct different phrasing!
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Quite. Last month was January. The month before last was December.
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two months ago
I totally get you haha that word is troublesome for me too
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Aye. “Last X” = the X that just passed. “X before last” = the X that came before “Last X”
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@Oshin-猫, @Belthazar-先輩 is correct. I believe you can also use this for the future. For example since we are now in February, month after next is April.
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You’re all very nice!
And giving me the same answer over and over. hahaha
Thank you!
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I disagree. Month before last can mean anytime in December, but two months ago means roughly around the 10th of December, as far as I understand it. Same with ‘week before last’ and ‘two weeks ago’.
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If you’re wondering why “month before last” and “last month” are different:
You can think of “month before last” as being an extended version of “the month before last month”.
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I personally wouldn’t parse someone’s comment that specifically. Now, if they said “60 days ago”…
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Or “around two months ago” or “two months ago exactly”.
It’s fairly contextual.
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I have a different problem with this vocabulary, and rather than making a new topic I guess I’ll just put it in here. If 先日 isn’t necessarily yesterday, it could be any previous day, therefore it’s “the other day”, why is 先月 “last month” and not “the other month”???
You’re probably looking for logic somewhere, where there is none 
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Well, there was already a native Japanese word (きのう) solidly planted in the role of “yesterday.”
I guess they could have taken the kanji 先日 and given it the reading きのう, the same way they did with 昨日, but they didn’t.