今日

Usage

今日 (きょう) is a relative time noun: it names a day by its distance from now, so like 明日・昨日・毎日・来月・去年 it works as an adverb on its own, with no に: 今日行きます. With は it becomes the topic or frame of the sentence (今日は暑いです), and with の it modifies another noun (今日の午後, 今日の新聞).

The reading きょう is a special whole-word reading; the characters mean ‘this day’. こんにち is a separate, formal reading meaning ‘nowadays’ that survives in the greeting こんにちは. Useful combinations: 今日中に (きょうじゅうに) ‘by the end of today’, 今日から ‘from today on’, 今朝 (けさ) ‘this morning’, 今晩 (こんばん) ‘tonight’.

Examples

• 今日は天気がいいですね。（きょう は てんき が いい です ね）— The weather is nice today, isn’t it?
• 今日は友達と映画を見ます。（きょう は ともだち と えいが を みます）— Today I’m watching a movie with a friend.
• 今日は何曜日ですか。（きょう は なんようび です か）— What day of the week is it today?
• 今日中に宿題を出してください。（きょうじゅう に しゅくだい を だして ください）— Please hand in the homework by the end of today.

Traps for Spanish, English and French speakers

• Spanish ‘hoy’, French ‘aujourd’hui’ and English ‘today’ take no preposition, and neither does 今日: relative time words drop に. Only clock times, weekdays and dates take に (三時に, 月曜日に, 五月五日に). ×今日に行きます → 今日行きます.
• こんにちは is literally 今日は ‘as for today…’, which is why its last syllable is written は and read wa. In an ordinary sentence 今日 is always きょう; reading it こんにち turns it into stiff ‘nowadays’.
• ‘Hoy hace calor’ and ‘Il fait chaud aujourd’hui’ have no visible subject, so learners reach for が (×今日が暑いです), which singles out today as the one hot day. A plain statement about today takes は: 今日は暑いです.