⏰Adverbs of time

This moment. After 'want' it presses: 'I want to fix it now' is nearly a request.

Literally 'main tenant' — hand-holding, i.e. at hand.

Ahorita (Mexico) = in a moment… or never.

also: ensuite, alors (at that time / so)

also: entonces, después

One syllable. Avant-hier = the day before yesterday.

Anteayer = the day before yesterday.

By default still ahead: 'I want to fix it today' means before the day is out.

Historically 'au jour d'hui' — 'on the day of today'; hui alone meant today (Latin hodie).

Latin hodie → hoy. Same root as French hui.

Après-demain = the day after tomorrow.

Also 'morning' (la mañana): mañana por la mañana = tomorrow morning. Pasado mañana = the day after tomorrow.

Also 'still': il est toujours là.

Needs ne: je ne sais jamais. Alone it can mean 'ever'.

also: jamás

No … nunca when it follows the verb.

The t is usually silent.

also: con frecuencia, muchas veces

also: quelquefois, des fois (informal)

Vague, and a promise of sorts: it says it is coming, not when.

À bientôt = see you soon.

Hasta pronto = see you soon.

Déjà vu — 'already seen'.

Also 'now', 'right away', and a filler: ya, ya.

also: yet (in negatives/questions)

Also 'again' and 'more': encore un peu.

also: aún

Final d silent. En retard = late (for something).

Also 'afternoon' (la tarde).

Preposition (before noon), conjunction (before I go) and adverb (I've been here before) — one word, three jobs.

avant midi. Before a verb it needs de: avant de partir.

The de is obligatory before a noun or infinitive: antes de comer.

Preposition, conjunction and adverb again, exactly like before.

après le déjeuner. Après avoir mangé for 'after eating' — a past infinitive.

Needs de, like antes de.

since + a point in time, for + a duration. Almost no other language here splits them.

Does BOTH: depuis lundi, depuis trois ans. And it takes the present tense — j'habite ici depuis dix ans, not the past.

desde hace tres años for a duration — Spanish adds hace.

during the film. For a duration you want 'for', which is a different word again.

pendant le film. Also does English 'for': j'ai attendu pendant une heure.

Both senses, like French.

First of all is the emphatic version, used to open a list.

Opens a sequence: d'abord… ensuite… enfin. Learners reach for premièrement, which is far stiffer.

As an adverb it does not agree — primero, then primero que nada for emphasis.

Closes a list, or marks relief. 'At last' is only the relief sense.

Closes a sequence AND expresses exasperation: enfin ! Both nasal vowels are different.

The relief sense; finalmente closes a list.

Immediately is the formal one; right away and straight away are what people say.

Said as one word, /tutswit/ — the de all but disappears.

Written as one word now; it was en seguida.

Stiff. 'In the old days' or 'back then' is what anyone actually says.

'Other times'. Jadis is the literary one and naguère means something subtly different — 'not long ago'.

Formal; antes on its own carries it in speech.

One word for 'one time'. Almost nowhere else does that — everyone else counts.

fois is a COUNTER for occurrences, and it is obligatory. Il était une fois = 'once upon a time'.

vez is the same kind of counter. Érase una vez opens the stories.

'Now and then' and 'every so often' are the shorter ones.

The liaison makes it /tɑ̃zɑ̃tɑ̃/. De temps à autre is the tidier written version.

'From time in when' — it stopped parsing centuries ago.

Each time is the same thing, slightly more deliberate.

À chaque fois with the preposition is just as common and means no more.

cada vez que + verb. Cada vez más = 'more and more'.

'All the time' and 'non-stop' are the spoken versions.

cesse is a noun that survives almost nowhere else — sans cesse and sans arrêt keep it alive.

With the INFINITIVE where French uses the noun. Sin parar is commoner.

Then does the same job and is vaguer about the order.

The middle of the sequence: d'abord… ensuite… enfin. Puis is the shorter, looser one.

Also 'later', and in Mexico 'luego luego' means 'right away' — the opposite.

also: later on

Vague: later today or some other time. 'See you later' promises nothing — often a polite 'not now'.

also: tout à l'heure (later today)

Plus tard can be any time. Tout à l'heure is the same day only — and it points BOTH ways: je le fais tout à l'heure = in a while; je l'ai vu tout à l'heure = a little while ago.

also: luego, después

Luego is the spoken one in Spain (hasta luego = see you). Después = afterwards.

also: in a bit, in a sec, in a minute

Minutes away, and it sounds like a promise — nearer than 'later', vaguer than 'right away'. 'In a minute' rarely means sixty seconds. 'In a bit' is looser: within the hour, probably, and nobody is holding you to it.

also: dans une minute, tout à l'heure (later today)

Dans un instant / dans une minute = minutes away. Tout à l'heure stretches to a few hours, still today; tout de suite is right now.

also: ahora (Spain: 'ahora voy'), ahorita (Mexico), ahora mismo

In Spain 'ahora' alone often means in a moment: ahora te llamo = I'll call you in a sec. Mexican ahorita can mean right now, in a moment — or, with a smile, never. Ahora mismo = this very minute.

'In' = from now: in five minutes. 'After five minutes' is about the past or a sequence — a common slip. Near and nearly measurable: a number, however loose.

Dans = from now (dans cinq minutes); en = how long it takes (en cinq minutes).

also: dentro de unos minutos

Dentro de is the precise 'from now'; plain en is what people say.

No preposition. Used about the future, it means later this morning.

Mañana alone is tomorrow; mañana por la mañana = tomorrow morning.

Cet before a vowel. Après-midi can be masculine or feminine; masculine is usual.

La tarde runs from lunch until dark, so it covers early evening too. Tarde alone = late.

also: this evening

Tonight covers the evening AND the night; 'this evening' stops at bedtime.

Ce soir = this evening, when you're awake. Cette nuit = while sleeping — and, in the morning, LAST night.

Spanish has no separate evening word: once it's dark it's noche, before that tarde.

Five words where every neighbour has one or two.

'Past tomorrow'.

also: in a couple of days

also: dentro de unos días

UK stresses the END, US the WEEK. 'At the weekend' (UK) / 'on the weekend' (US).

Borrowed from English; Quebec prefers la fin de semaine.

also: este finde (Spain, colloquial)

No 'the', no preposition: see you next week. Definite but wide — any of seven days.

Prochaine AFTER the noun = the calendar week after this one. La prochaine semaine = the next week in a sequence, or the coming seven days.

also: la próxima semana

'The week that is coming' — the most natural in speech.

also: el próximo mes

also: l'an prochain

Both are everyday; l'an prochain is a touch shorter and punchier.

also: el próximo año

Mind the tilde: año = year, ano = anus.

also: sometime

Vague, not soon. Sometime (one word) = at some point; sometimes = now and then — easy to mix up. Non-committal: it will happen, but nobody is pressing for a date.

also: un de ces jours

Vague and undated. Un de ces jours ('one of these days') sounds a little nearer, and friendlier.

also: algún día

also: someday

A wish more than a plan — maybe never. 'One of these days' is closer and a bit impatient.

also: un jour ou l'autre

Un jour ou l'autre = sooner or later, with more conviction.

also: un día de estos (soon-ish)

Means 'in the end, after a while' — NOT 'possibly'. False friend for every neighbour: fr éventuellement, es eventualmente, de eventuell, it eventualmente all mean 'possibly, if need be'. No date, and yet it WILL happen: a promise you mean but cannot schedule.

also: à la longue, à terme (formal), finalement (in the end)

Éventuellement is a false friend: it means 'possibly, if need be'. 'Eventually' in English is tôt ou tard, à la longue, or finalement for a past outcome.

also: a la larga, al final (in the end)

'Late or early' — the reverse order of English and French. Eventualmente = possibly, occasionally — a false friend.