In the third installation on our coverage of non-deictic time, we will take a step back to cover the generic yet vague, context-dependent time phrases that represent much of the language’s core vocabulary regarding time.
Vague context-dependent time phrases, as the naming suggests, have their time frames defined by context. These phrases often repeat in cyclical fashion. For instance, 朝 means “morning,” morning is bound to occur tomorrow, but from when to when is considered morning will be subject to context.
Words that fall into this category are most notably followed by に, but the conditions mentioned in the last lesson in which it may be dropped still hold true:
i. When a non-deictic expression modifies a noun, の – not に – is used, as it is being used as an attribute. Furthermore, にの is invalid because of multiple case particles can never be used on the same noun simultaneously.
ii. Topicalizing a non-deictic expression often results in に being dropped because the particle は already heightens its adverbial nature.
iii. When a deictic expression modifies a non-deictic expression, に ought not be present except when a contrast is being made or when there is a clear reference point like a date on a calendar or when telling time.
iv. When the events of the main clause are given greater semantic weight in the sentence, に is often dropped. This is especially so when non-deictic expressions are in sentence-initial position and can be viewed as being tacked on to the more important information.
v. When the main clause describes a condition versus an action, non-deictic expressions are not used with に because they are viewed as adverbs qualifying the nature of said state of being.
There are, in fact, two more conditions that hinder the appearance of に with inherently non-deictic expressions.
vi. Adverbs of non-deictic nature that cannot be used as nouns are not marked with に – ex. 一昼夜 (all day and night).
vii. Whenever a non-deictic noun is used outside of a literal temporal sense and/or serves another grammatical function as a regular standalone noun – ex. 記憶の始まり (beginning of one’s memory) vs. はじまりには (in the beginning).
The latter point, vii., also begs the question of other grammatical functions that に may have which necessitate its presence with said non-deictic nouns.
i. 始まりには必ず終わりがある。(Spatial に)
There must always be an end to a beginning.
ii. 会議はいつにしましょうか。
When should we have our meeting to?
Particle Note: Though not reflected well in the English translation, に is not after いつ to mark time; rather, it is there to mark it as the object of what is being decided.
This provides a great opportunity to make it clear that when we talk about when to use the temporal に or not, we are referring to when these same words would be used with “in/on/at” in English. This does not mean that these words cannot be used with other particles. Meaning, if you wish to say, “from…,” or “until…,” or say even “… is a…,” expect the appropriate particle to follow instead of に.
iii. 朝から晩まで友達と遊びまくった。
I had a blast with my friends from morning till evening.
It is also important to note that the に in ～までに (by), a compound particle used to indicate a deadline, actually utilizes the temporal に, meaning that its grammar follows what we have learned so far.
iv. 朝9時までに済ませるようにしてくださいね。
Please make sure to get it finished by 9 AM.
Although we have already delved into so much of the grammar surrounding non-deictic expressions, there is still more for us to explore. That being said, in this lesson, we will also look into some of the ways how you can expand your vocabulary in this area with much needed affixes (prefixes and suffixes).
Core Vocabulary
In this section, we will look over examples of vague, context-dependent expressions which constitute as core vocabulary words. Many of these words will already be familiar to you from past example sentences in lessons up to this point, but we will also take the time to iron out any lingering grammar questions.
▼Time of Day
Non-deictic expressions which vaguely refer to time periods which occur during the day can all be characterized as typically taking に in isolation, more so than not1. As we discovered when learning how to tell time, this group of words exhibits significant overlap due to many of them having a strict and loose interpretation.
| Phrase | Meanings | Notes |
| 日 | ①Day ②Daytime | Though normally used in the sense of an entire “day,” in certain contexts it may refer to just when the sun is out – Ex. 日のうちに (during daylight) |
| 朝 | Morning | Its exact time frame references wildly differs depending on context, potentially being synonymous with AM while also more realistically usually referring to 6 AM -12 PM. |
| 明け方 | Dawn | Time period in which the sun is rising, which is subject to change depending on season and locality. 未明 is a common synonym, but whereas 未明 is used in conjunction with dates and telling time as a suffix, 明け方 is favored when modified by other non-deictic expressions. ・三日未明 (early dawn of the 3rd) ・翌日の明け方 (early dawn the following day) |
| 暁2 | Daybreak | Synonymous with 夜明け(方) and rather poetic in tone, it also captures the part of night before the sun rises, as that is technically part of the next day. |
| 昼 | ①Noon/midday ②Daytime | Though it is the native word for “noon/midday,” it is also the antonym of 夜 (night). For the meaning of “noon,” you may also see it spelled as 午. |
| 真昼3 | High Noon | Roughly from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM, this compound’s meaning relies on the “daytime” meaning of 昼. |
| 昼間 | Daytime | Unambiguously means “daytime.” |
| 夕方 | Dusk | Defined as when the sun goes down, which is subject to season and locality. 夕暮れ, 晩方, and 暮れ方 are synonymous. |
| 晩 | Evening | Though often replaced by 夜 in the spoken language, by definition it refers to the time after the sun goes down, which also encompasses night-time. |
| 宵 | Early Night | Rather poetic in tone, it is a remnant of when 夜 used to be split into three parts: 宵・夜中（よなか）・暁. It is synonymous with the more common 初夜. |
| 夜 | Night | Broadly speaking, when the sun is down. |
| 夜間 | Night-time | A technical replacement for 夜. |
| 夜中 | Middle of night | Synonyms include 夜半（やはん・よわ4）, 夜更け (late at night), 零時 (0 o’ clock), and 真夜中 (midnight). |
※Idiomatic uses of these words – ex. お昼 meaning “lunch” – are excluded from this chart, but they are, of course, still based on the literal temporal meaning(s).
1. 車検証は車検が終わった日にもらえないんですか？
Can you not get your vehicle inspection sticker on the day you finish getting your vehicle inspected?
2. どこかに晩御飯5を食べに行こう。
Let’s go eat dinner somewhere.
3. 夜6を徹して議論し合った。
We debated with each other all night long.
4. マクドナルドでは、ひる7マックは午前10時半から午後2時までとなっているが、朝はともかく、2時までが昼というのには抵抗がある。
At McDonalds, the “Lunch Mac” is from 10:30 AM to 2:00 PM, but putting aside (what time) morning is, I’m reluctant at considering “昼” “until 2.”
5. 火事は2日未明にようやく消し止められた。
The fire was at last extinguished in the early hours of the 2nd.
6. 真夜中に到着してもコンビニでさっと色々（と）買えますよ。
You can quickly buy all sorts of things at the convenience stores even if you arrive at midnight.
7. 現代人は宵っ張りの人が増え、（午後）12（時）過ぎまで起きている方がザラですね。
As for people of today, the number of night-owls has increased, and now people who are up until 12 AM are the norm.
Phrase Note: 宵っ張り = “night-owl.”
8. 宵越しの銭は持たない。(Proverb)
What one earns by day, one spends by night.
Sentence Note: The suffix ～越し after time phrases indicates that something has remained so throughout said period of time. Thus, the 銭 (money) one had had throughout the day is no longer with you in the end because you blew through it.
The suffix ～前, which we have learned may mean “a little before” when telling the time, can be used with an array of time phrases – telling time/date, time durations8 – as seen in 昼前 (shortly before noon), 明け方前 (shortly before dawn), 夜中前に (shortly before midnight), etc. However, it is important to note that certain combinations do not exist9.
9. 一度夜中前にお義母さんに呼び出され、軽い事故をしてしまいました。
I was once called up shortly before midnight by my mother-in-law and incidentally caused a minor scene.
10. 昼前に出発したので機内ではほとんど寝られませんでした。
Since I departed shortly before noon, I could hardly sleep inside the plane.
The suffix ～過ぎ is parallel to how ～前 is in that it is most natural after non-deictic phrases with more finite time frames. Meaning, whereas 夜過ぎ is NOT10 natural, 昼過ぎ is.
11. 昼過ぎから夕方の早い時間帯にはハッピーアワーでドリンクが安くなったり、軽食が割安で食べられたりする。
In the time period from around past noon to early evening, drinks become cheaper and you can eat small appetizers at a discounted price on happy hour.
Nuance Note: 昼過ぎ is strictly defined as any time between noon and 3 PM, and 夕方 starts at 3 PM, which may seem unnatural to English speakers, given how even “early evening” is usually later in the day.
Grammar Note: It is not always the case that まで (until) accompanies phrasing that translates into English as “from X to Y.” It is often dropped so long “Xから” has come first, and it is more common when something else in the sentence prevents まで from making an appearance. Since まで only follows nouns, another word for “time” would have to appear before 時間帯, which would be redundant.
Of these phrases, ～暁には may be used figuratively to indicate the triggering of something major.
12. 開戦の暁には条約は一片のほごに過ぎぬ。(Proverb)
A treaty is only a scrap of paper on the morrow of a war.
▼Time of Year
Having already learned how the Kanji below are used in deictic compounds, it is now time to see how they are used in isolation as well as non-deictic compounds.
| Phrase | Meaning | Usage Notes |
| 年 | Year | When to use its ON reading ネン and its KUN reading とし is not straightforward, as both can be used in isolation and because both may be used to mean “year” or “age.” What differs is their distribution in phrases. ・ネン is used when indicating frequency – ex. 年（ねん）に一度 = “once a year.” ・ネン is used as the counter for year – ex. 一年（いちねん） = “one year” – but this does not exclude the existence of the native rendition ひととせ (albeit now archaic). ・ネン is favored in compounds but is not exclusively used in them – exs. 年齢（ねんれい）= “age,” 新年（しんねん） = “New Year.” ※Note that certain prefixes result in deictic time expressions, such as 来～ (next) in 来年 (next year). ・とし is favored in isolation, and it may be also seen voiced as どし when used in compounds, especially those related to astrology – exs. 辰年（たつどし）= “Year of the Dragon,” 厄年（やくどし）= “unlucky year,” 同い年 = “same age.” |
| 月 | Month | In isolation, it is only read as つき, but in compounds, it varies greatly between its ON readings ゲツ・ガツ and its KUN readings つき・づき. Excluding compounds made with deictic prefixes such as 今～ (this) and 来～ (next), resultant phrases are typically non-deictic. ・正月（しょうがつ）= “first month of the year” ・臨月（りんげつ）＝ “last month of pregnancy” ・睦月（むつき）＝ “first month of the lunar year” ・水無月（みなづき）＝ “sixth month of the lunar year” |
| 週 | Week | Most compounds are deictic or related to frequency, with the latter group of words being purely adverbial. ・来週（らいしゅう）”next week” (deictic) ・隔週（かくしゅう）”every other week” (frequency adverb) Named weeks are expressed instead with 週間. ・全国安全週間 = “national safety week.” |
| 季節 | Season | The four seasons are 春 (spring), 夏 (summer), 秋 (autumn/fall), and 冬 (winter). |
13. この季節に釣れる魚を紹介していきます！
I’ll introduce you to the fish that can be caught in this season!
14. 江戸時代の遊女のほとんどは年（季）が明けるまで生きられなかったみたいですよ。
It seems that most Edo Period pleasure-district women weren’t able to live until their indentureship ended.
Reading Note: Although 年 in isolation is normally read as とし, there are set expressions, albeit usually contractions of a compound, in which it is instead read as ネン, as seen in Ex. 14.
15. 年を重ねると時間の流れが速く感じるのはなぜですか。
Why is it that time feels like it’s going faster when you get older?
16. 職場復帰するには何月（なんがつ）に産むのがいいといったことまで考える余裕も情報もありませんでした。
I neither had the time nor the information to think as far as which month would be best to give birth for the purpose of returning back to work.
17. 感染者の特徴としましては、先週も、【その前の週に・先々週に】引き続き、家庭内感染が目立ちました。
Concerning the characteristics infected people (had), continuing on from last week and the week before then, household transmission stood out.
Diction Note: Although using 先々週 would be more grammatically consistent, when multiple time phrases are used in the same sentence, it is quite common for speakers to go back and forth between deictic and non-deictic paraphrases.
▼Other Examples in Context
・過去: Any point in time that has gone by is a part of the past, and because the word itself cannot be pointed down to a single instant on the “now” timeline, it is non-deictic by nature, which is why it does take the particle に.
18. 過去に起こった噴火について学びました。
I learned about eruptions that happened in the past.
However, this does not exclude the possibility of に being absent. Scenarios in which this is so include treating 過去 figuratively as something that can be possessed, reflected on, losing its literal temporal nature.
19. 過去は過去である。
The past is the past.
Also, one cannot forget about the aforementioned conditions in which に may not appear with non-deictic expressions, topicalization being one such factor.
20. 過去（に）は振り返らない！
I will not look back at the past!
Particle Note: In Ex. 20, the particle に is still dropped even though it is not the temporal に. When an indirect object is topicalized but に is dropped, it is not grammatically necessary in Japanese to overtly state the object again because just that one iteration can account for both functions.
・未来: The non-deictic rendition of “the future,” atypical of other phrases in this category, there is a great degree of freedom as to how it may be used as a typical number, as demonstrated by the following sentences.
21. タイムマシンに乗って未来から来た。
I came from the future with a time machine.
22. 未来には何があるだろうか。
What does the future hold.
23. どんな未来にも愛はある。
Love exists no matter the future.
In Exs. 22-23, に is not used in the temporal sense but in a spatial sense. What’s more, we see in Ex. 22 that 未来 can even be modified by adjectives like a regular noun.
24. 人間に未来はあるのだろうか。
What kind of future does humanity have?
In Ex. 24, we see that 未来 is used in a way far removed from just referencing a future time, instead treating it as an entity that can be possessed.
Learners often wonder how 未来 and 将来 differ. Simply put, 将来 refers to the near future, whereas 未来 is an abstract perception of the future.
25. 将来は何になりたいですか。
What you like to become in the future?
Grammar Note: The English translation uses the preposition “in,” which indicates how 将来 itself is still non-deictic and that topicalization is to blame for に’s disappearance. Typically, 将来 is seen just with は, but に becomes more common if it serves another grammatical purpose or when used with the particle も.
26. 将来にも役立ちます。
It’ll even be useful [for/in] the future.
27. 近い将来（に）誰でも月に行けるようになるって本当なんでしょうか。
Is it really true that in the very near future that anyone will be able to go to the moon?
・昔3 (a long time ago/the distant past): Though frequently not used with the particle に, 昔 as very much the non-deictic antonym of “now,” whereas 古（いにしえ）, which also translates as “the distant past,” is the deictic rendition. Meaning, 昔 vaguely refers to a past point in time that cannot be pinned down, but 古 is more firmly anchored to a particular time frame in relation to the present.
28. 遠い昔に類人猿は、ヨーロッパ全土にも生息域を広げていたようです。
In the distant past, apes seemed to have spread their habitat range all throughout Europe as well.
29. 大昔、生息地を追われたマンモスが絶滅してしまった。
Long ago, having lost their habitat, mammoths went extinct.
・始まり・初め: Both the spelling variation and existence of two valid nominal forms equating to “beginning/start” can be quite confusing, but their inherent difference based on transitivity cannot be overlooked.
While both nouns may be used non-deictically, the true difference between the two lies in the nature of how things begin.
始まり is the only valid spelling of the intransitive-derived form, and it often indicates the beginning of something grand, and whatever the event may be, it either occurred spontaneously or as a natural result. It is also used whenever the beginning of something is also indicative of cause and/or motive.
初め and 始め45 are both valid spellings of the transitive-derived form. The former is used to indicate the early stage of an event (whether it is static or active in nature is irrelevant), whereas the latter more literally indicates the start of an action.
30. 宇宙の始まりにはビッグバンが起きた、と言われます。
It’s said that the Big Bang occurred in the beginning of the universe.
31. 初めに神は天と地とを創造された。
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
32. 五月はじめに戻りました。
I returned in the start of May.
33. 大家は月初めに家賃を払うよう求めている。
The landlord is demanding that (they) pay rent at the start of the month.
・終わり: Unlike with the transitive/intransitive pair for “to begin/start,” only the nominal form of the intransitive form of “to end” is used in the sense of “end.”
34. もう四月（の）終わりに近づきました。
We’ve already approached the end of April.
Particle Note: Both はじめ and 終わり are frequently seen directly after the months without the particle の, but whereas 月初め is common, 月終わり is oddly not used.
35. 6600万年前の白亜紀の終わりに起きた隕石衝突による恐竜絶滅
The extinction of the dinosaurs caused by a meteor impact which occurred at the end of the Cretaceous Period 66 million years ago
・先: This word is inherently confusing as it can refer to both the recent past and the near future depending on the surrounding context. How it is translated back into English also varies greatly.
36. 朝（に）、先に起きた彼女がキスして起こしてくれたんだ。(Past)
My girlfriend, who woke up first in the morning, woke me up with a kiss.
Grammar Note: Though the first に can be omitted, the に with 先 cannot. This is because, when indicating order (who goes first), に is a tad more nuanced than just indicating time. The same can be said for similar phrases like はじめに.
37. 先の台風は大変でしたね。(Past)
The previous typhoon was something else, huh.
38. でもこの先何が起こるかわからないでしょう？(Future)
But, you can’t know what the future holds, right?
39. これから先（に）、多くの困難が待ち受けているだろう。(Future)
Many hardships lie ahead.
Common Affixes
The chart below illustrates some of the most common affixes used to create more of the everyday non-deictic expressions that you will come across.
| Affix | Meaning | Examples |
| 初～ | Early… | ・初春 “early spring” ・初夏 “early summer” ・初秋 “early autumn/fall” ・初冬 “early winter” |
| ～初 | Start of… | ・年初 “start of the year” ・月初 “start of the month” |
| ～末 | End | ・年末 “end of the year” ・月末 “end of the month” ・週末 “weekend” |
| ～明け14 | Period after… | ・年明け “start of the new year” ・週明け “start of a new week” ・夜明け “dawn” ・梅雨明け “end of the rainy season” |
| ～休み | …break | ・春休み “Spring Break” ・夏休み “Summer Break” ・冬休み “Winter Break” |
| 真～ | Middle of… | ・真夜中 “midnight” ・真夏 “midsummer” ・真冬 “midwinter” |
| ～日（び） | …day | ・記念日 “anniversary” ・誕生日 “birthday” ・曜日 “(day(s) of the week” |
| ～日（ジツ） | …day | ・元日 “New Year’s Day” ・休日 “day off” ・祝日 “holiday” |
| ～日（か） | …day | ・晦日 “30th day of the (lunar) month” ・八日 “8th day of the month” |
| ～間 | …period | ・年間 “year (period)” ・月間 “month (period)” ・週間 “week (period)” ・時間 “time (period)” |
When paired with the particle に, words ending in ～間 must not be viewed as indicating duration as in “for x amount time,” but rather as “during said time.” Now, as for how and when to use ～間, when part of the name of a certain time period – ex. 全国安全週間 “National Safety Week – it is required. Most importantly, ～間 is used whenever the time phrase is being used in a quantifiable sense as opposed to in a relative sense.
40. 誕生日の【週 ◎・週間 △】に行けば無料ですよ？
If you go in the week of your birthday, it’s free, you know?
41. 誕生日の週間の1日前だったので、無料じゃなかったんですよ。
Since it was one day before the week of my birthday, it wasn’t free for me.
42. 買わぬ富くじが当たれば晦日15に月が出る。(Proverb)
If you were to win a lottery you didn’t even buy, then the moon could rise at the end of the month (lunar).
43. カップルの記念日にぴったりの商品です！
It’s the perfect item for a couple’s anniversary!
Particle Note: This use of the particle に indicates “purpose.”
44. それなのに、彼がちょっと休日に友達と出かけてくるとか、その程度のことで私はとても不機嫌になってしまいます。
And yet, if goes out with friends on weekends, or something of that nature, I get really upset about it.
45. カロライナジャスミンは、春から初夏に咲く黄色い花が世界中で人気だ。
As for the Carolina Jessamine, the yellow flowers that it blooms starting in spring to early summer are popular worldwide.
Particle Note: Here, we see に instead of まで for the purpose of not setting the end time in stone. Firstly, から serves to indicate onset, the earliest extent to which is possible, but に inherently designates when something occurs, so we can assume that the “blooming” of this flower generally occurs in 初夏 rather than ending in it.
46. 年末年始16にカギ関連のトラブルが増えるという。
It’s said that trouble involving keys increases in the Year-End and New Year holiday season.
Time Intervals: 時間・時刻・時間帯・時点
時間, as we have seen, does mean “time,” but rather than pinpointing an exact moment of time, it correlates to a duration or period of time.
47. 適量｛の ◎・な｝飲酒で、楽しいお酒の時間を！
Have fun drinking while drinking in moderation!
That is not to say that that window of time is not more or less a certain instant in time, as shown by the next sentence. In these situations, though, 時間 can still be viewed as a window of time, as there will be a process of some sort going on.
48. 出発の時間に呼び出されてる人いますよね？
You know how there are people being called up at the time of departure?
時刻 is composed of two Kanji that both mean “time,” but the latter is also known for referring to “hour,” which leads to 時刻 translating as “time (of day)” or “the hour” depending on context. When compared to 時間, however, we see that 時刻 refers to a certain window of time, whereas 時間 is heavily stilted to imply duration.
49. 予定所要時間は約２０時間です。
The estimated time required is approximately 20 hours.
50. 津波の到達予想時刻はまもなく発表されます。
The tsunami’s estimated time of arrival will be announced shortly.
51. 時刻は午後３時３４分です。
The time is 3:34 PM.
Then, we have 時間帯, which, as we saw in Ex. 11, can mean “time slot,” but it also has the meaning of “time zone.”
52. いまび先生、もう少し遅い時間帯にレッスンをしてくださいませんか。
Imabi Sensei, could you please do lessons in (a) somewhat later time slot(s)?
53. ビジネスなどでアメリカとやりとりする方は時間帯に注意が必要です。
People who correspond with (people in) America for business and such must pay attention to time zone.
時点, as made evident by the Kanji used, indicates a certain point in time, but because of how 点 functions as a place, it is the particle で, not に, that is associated with it.
54. 患者は病院に運ばれた時点で、すでに亡くなっていました。
The patient had already passed away at the time they had been brought to the hospital.
The Word for “Time” ITSELF: 時
The native word for “time” is 時, and it is arguably the most fundamental non-deictic time phrase in Japanese, following all the precedent for how deciding between に・は・には・∅ (no particle marking) works.
55. あのとき流した涙が何だったんだ。
What the heck where those tears I cried then for?
56. そのときには必ず買います！
I will definitely buy it then!
57. いつでも好きな時にお刺身が食べられます。
You can eat sashimi whenever you like.
Before broadly going over how 時 functions grammatically with dependent clauses in the next lesson, let’s look at how the Kanji 時 itself creates non-deictic in compounds, doing so with both its ON reading ジ and its KUN reading どき.
58. お昼時にはお客でいっぱいでした。
(We) were full of customers at lunch(-time).
59. コロナとインフルの検査を同時にやりました。
I did a COVID and a flu test at the same time.
60. 数千人の無辜の市民の命が瞬時に消えた。
Thousands of innocent civilian lives were erased in an instant.
- Instances such as Ex. 36 do demonstrate how even the most basic of non-deictic phrases can still have に dropped for presumably no reason other than adjusting the tone, with even that subject to circumstance (whether the overall context is formal or casual affecting how its absence might sound). ↩︎
- Historically, 暁 was read as あかとき, and its time frame was originally “from midnight until right about when the sun rises.” Following 暁, 東雲（しののめ） indicated the time of dawn in which the eastern skies would start lighting up, and then 曙（あけぼの）indicated right when the sun is about to show, which would then be followed by 朝ぼらけ. In Modern Japanese, the words 明け方 and 夜明け（方）have largely replaced these words; however, they may all still be heard. ↩︎
- Other variants include 真昼間 and 真っ昼間. ↩︎
- 夜半（よわ）is no longer used in the spoken language, despite showing up in dictionaries as an alternative reading. Historically, it is thought to be an ancient variant of 夜, but at some point in its history, it became spelled as 夜半 through 当て字, which altered its meaning to “middle of the night.” ↩︎
- Depending on when one eats “dinner,” you may even use 夕ご飯 or 夜ご飯, with the latter becoming incredibly common as people eat later. Traditionally, though, 夜ご飯 had not been coined, which means many older speakers still find it unnatural. ↩︎
- 夜 may be read as よる and よ, and it is not the case that the latter is limited to compounds, as in this phrase, よ is only valid. It is thought that the /ru/ was added to the root form /yo/ to indicate the time in which it is dark, which would be broader than what might have been meant by /yo/ in isolation. In turn, we find よ favored in many set phrases which the time period of “night” is changing/changed – 夜（よ）が更ける “the night wears on,” 夜が明ける “day dawns,” etc. ↩︎
- （お）昼（ご飯） means “lunch,” and in the restaurant industry, it is very common for lunchtime to be defined differently than how the word 昼 would be interpreted, which is the complaint made by this speaker. However, as mentioned in the chart, 昼 does, in fact, have the meaning of “daytime.” Etymologically, the /ru/ in 昼 is thought to be the same /ru/ found in 夜. That would make 昼 literally mean “when the sun is out,” which extends well beyond the time frame of discussion in this sentence. ↩︎
- The presence/lack of の may alter how ～前に is interpreted when dealing with day periods/durations. For instance, 15日 itself may either mean “the 15th day of the month” or “15 days.” When ～前に is used without の, the latter meaning is intended, whereas to get the former, you would need to use the particle の. ↩︎
- As a prime example, 夜前 only exists with the reading やぜん but with the meaning of “previous night.” Although present in early Modern Japanese literature, this word is no longer in use. The natural means of circumventing this would be to use ～の少し前; however, whether that would result in the most natural solution is debatable, as there are plenty of ↩︎
- Although normally unnatural, 夜過ぎ is not impossible.
iv. 今日の夜過ぎに乗れたらなんでもいいです。
If I’m able to get on (a ride for) after nightfall, that’d be great. (Intended Meaning)
It is perceivable that a speaker may consider 夜 as being before 深夜 but within the same day. However, the strict interpretation of 夜 (6-12 PM) conflicts with this. Furthermore, it appears that this speaker is also conflating how ～過ぎ typically refers to a “shortly after” when telling time, which would be a shorter time frame, but the word itself is still always used literally in that the time period it follows has ended. Therefore, 夜過ぎ would literally mean “after night.” ↩︎ - 昔 may also seldom be used as a counter for decades, but this usage is an example of a frequency adverb, therefore never taking に and not indicative of non-deictic time – ex. ふた昔 (two decades ago). ↩︎
- The spelling 創め also exists, which heavily indicates the creation of something. ↩︎
- はじめ is actually far more common than either 初め or 始め, thereby avoiding the need to differentiate between its nuances. ↩︎
- Dictionaries confusingly list 明け as meaning “the end of/soon after x time period ended” and “the beginning of a year/month/day,” which appear to contradict each other. Unequivocally, if ～明け is used as a suffix, it always indicates the period directly after the time frame it is attached to. If, however, it comes before the time frame, like in 明けの年 (the following year), the translation as well as how Japanese speaker’s internalize this is simply a simplification of introducing the next said unit of time right after the last one ended without having to repeat said time frame. Meaning, 年明けの年 would be inherently redundant, which is why we are left with 明けの年. This all being said, 新年明けましておめでとうございます (Happy New Year) is deemed incorrect because of how 新年が明ける would technically, strangely mean “the New Year ending.” Traditionally, the concept of “Happy New Year” is Japanese was different in that people would celebrate having successfully lived another year, but the phrase “Happy New Year” from English puts emphasis on a new year starting. By conflating how 明け at first glance seems to also mean “the start” – ignoring word order difference – 明ける has gained the meaning of “to start” in the context of New Year. So, if you are a traditionalist, you will favor 明けましておめでとう, and if you are one with the times, you will favor 新年あけましておめでとう. ↩︎
- 晦日・三十日 is the original way of saying the “30th” when Japan still used the lunar calendar. The start/end of a 月 was marked by a new moon, in which the moon does not shine, which also gave rise to the alternative reading つごもり, a contraction of 月籠り (the moon being covered up). In modern times, みそか is predominantly only used in 大晦日, which has come to mean New Year’s Eve irrespective of the lunar calendar. ↩︎
- 年末 means “end of the year” and 年始 means “start of the year,” and when paired together, especially when referring to the holiday season which spans both, the natural flow of time results in 年末年始 being the most logical and natural iteration of it; however, despite the aversion that many native speakers have towards it, you will also hear 年始年末, even in formal notices made by companies. Their reasoning is based on which comes first on a calendar: January is the first month and December is the last month.
v. 【年始年末 △】の営業時間変更のお知らせは以下のとおりでございます。
年末は１２/３０までは通常営業となります。
年始は１/４より通常営業となります。
Our notice regarding the change in our hours of operation for the New Year season is as follows:
Year-End: Normal hours until 12/30.
New Year: Normal hours starting 1/4.
Even in this example, however, the speaker switches to the traditional ordering when explaining the situation. That being said, this is why the phrase 年始年末 gets a △ grade. ↩︎