Today we’ll be talking about the German counterparts of the English adjective RECENT and the adverb RECENTLY.
How to say RECENTLY or LATELY in German? The answer is not obvious, because there a couple ways of doing it.
You can choose one of the following:
– vor Kurzem (sometimes spelled vor kurzem)
– kürzlich
– vor kurzer Zeit
– neulich
– letztens
– unlängst
– jüngst (not very common)
– dieser Tage
– neuerdings
– letzthin
– in letzter Zeit
– seit Kurzem (sometimes spelled seit kurzem)
The Two Categories
All these words and phrases are more or less synonymous. How do we use them and how do we decide which one to choose? Well, in most cases we have more than one option. Generally we can divide all these adverbs and adverbials into two categories:
1) vor Kurzem, kürzlich, vor kurzer Zeit, neulich, unlängst, jüngst, dieser Tage
You can use one of them if you want to say that something happened at a point in the past not long ago.
2) neuerdings, letzthin, in letzter Zeit, seit Kurzem
You can use one of them if you mean over a short period of time up to and including the present.
Examples
Time for some examples. Let’s start with the adverbs and adverbials from the first group:
Wir haben das Haus vor kurzer Zeit verkauft.
We sold the house recently.
Ich habe sie erst vor Kurzem kennen gelernt.
I only met them recently.
Das ist erst kürzlich passiert.
It only happened recently.
Wir haben sie unlängst getroffen.
We met them recently.
Neulich habe ich einen wirklich guten Film gesehen.
I saw a really good movie recently.
Erst jüngst hat er mir die Wahrheit gesagt.
He only told me the truth recently.
Es muss dieser Tage passiert sein.
It must have happened recently.
Now some examples with the adverbs and adverbials from the second group:
Es hat letzthin viel geregnet.
It’s been raining a lot recently.
Neuerdings lese ich sehr viel.
I’ve been reading a lot recently.
In letzter Zeit besucht sie dich sehr oft.
She’s been visiting you very frequently recently.
Seit kurzem wohne ich hier.
I’ve lived here (since) recently.
The Adjective RECENT
Now, all the above are adverbials or adverbs and they are not used as adjectives in German. So, how do we say RECENT? Well, we just need to paraphrase the adverbials. Here are some examples:
eine kürzlich stattgefundene Konferenz
a recent conference
in meinem Urlaub neulich
on my recent vacation
INFO
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