<p>Literally, 今 means &quot;present&quot;.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>今天 - the present day = today.</p>
</li>
<li><p>今年 - the present year = this year.</p>
</li>
<li><p>今生 - the present life = this life.</p>
</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-01T19:34:37.833Z
2023-06-01T19:34:37.833Z
r13
<p><code>今</code> 多用在口语上, 比较随意些.</p>
<p><code>今天</code> 多用在书面上, 比较正式些.</p>
<p>Both <code>今</code> and <code>今天</code> have the same meaning, which is <code>today</code>.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-30T00:30:36.463Z
2023-06-30T00:30:36.463Z
Tom
<p>This is an interesting phenomenon. This kind of &quot;pleonastic construction&quot; is not uncommon in languages. For example, in old French, &quot;hui&quot; means &quot;this day&quot;, just like &quot;hoy&quot; in Spanish, &quot;oggi&quot; in Italian and &quot;heute&quot; in German.</p>
<p>In modern French, &quot;today&quot; (aujourd'hui) can be analysed as &quot;on the day of this day&quot;.
In Spanish, to mean &quot;today&quot;, people can say &quot;hoy en dìa&quot;, in Italian &quot;al giorno d'oggi&quot; and in German &quot;heutzutage&quot;, which all have the similar meaning of &quot;the day of this day&quot; or &quot;nowadays&quot;.</p>
<p>In French, when people want to emphasise, they sometimes even say &quot;au jour d'aujour'dui&quot; (literally: &quot;on the day of the day of this day&quot;).</p>
<p>Let's end the discussion with the first 2 lines from a famous poem of Li Bai:</p>
<p>弃我去者，<strong>昨日之日</strong>不可留。
乱我心者，<strong>今日之日</strong>多烦忧。</p>
<ul>
<li>李白 《宣州谢朓楼饯别校书叔云》</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-07-03T04:31:52.263Z
2023-07-03T04:31:52.263Z
KK_Tse
<p>Sometimes you should regard Chinese as a music. We use two characters as a word to make it sound more melodious, especially the common words. &quot;今天&quot; is used in daily discourse (even in old days), so we commonly use &quot;今天&quot;.</p>
<p>But in the old days, it is hard to write more characters, so people reduced number of writing as much as possible, forming the habit of using a single character to express more meaning in old Chinese documents. So, you would only see &quot;今&quot; used in these old writings, or idioms followed from old documents. If you used this single character in daily discourse, people would think &quot;what's wrong with you?&quot;</p>
<p>As a side note, sometimes &quot;今&quot; or &quot;今天&quot; does not mean exactly today, but recent days (or even years), like 美国今不如昔、今日美国乱象丛生. Don't ask why, just speak Chinese like singing a song (do you ask why a note here when singing a song?), and you'll automatically know.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-07-17T07:13:28.973Z
Welcome to Chinese StackExchange, and thanks for your contribution! Melody or prosody surely plays its part in the contrast between mono-syllabic and bisyllabic words in modern Chinese; could you elaborate on that a bit?
magni
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-07-04T06:24:02.157Z
2023-07-04T06:24:02.157Z
zzzhhh
<p>They can both mean the same thing, but is there a specific case why you would use 今 instead of 今天?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-02T02:59:44.483Z
Why would you think 今(now) means "today"?
Tang Ho
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-30T00:33:09.457Z
@TangHo `今` means "today",  now in Chinese is `现在`.  `今`  and `now` not the same meaning.
Tom
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-07-01T05:05:41.573Z
今 means now, not today.  For example, 如今, 今人, 現今, in which 今 all means now, not today. 今已改之 means "Now, I have changed", not "Today, I have changed."
joehua
<word-choice><meaning-in-context>
Why 今 and 今天 both mean “today”?
# Why 今 and 今天 both mean “today”?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-06-01)

They can both mean the same thing, but is there a specific case why you would use 今 instead of 今天?

**Tags:** word-choice, meaning-in-context

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Why would you think 今(now) means "today"?  
> **username_2**: @username_1 `今` means "today",  now in Chinese is `现在`.  `今`  and `now` not the same meaning.  
> **username_3**: 今 means now, not today.  For example, 如今, 今人, 現今, in which 今 all means now, not today. 今已改之 means "Now, I have changed", not "Today, I have changed."  

---

## 4 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2023-06-01. Score: 10

Literally, 今 means "present".

* 今天 - the present day = today.
* 今年 - the present year = this year.
* 今生 - the present life = this life.


---

### Answer by username_2 on 2023-06-30. Score: 0

`今` 多用在口语上, 比较随意些.

`今天` 多用在书面上, 比较正式些.

Both `今` and `今天` have the same meaning, which is `today`.


---

### Answer by username_5 on 2023-07-03. Score: 0

This is an interesting phenomenon. This kind of "pleonastic construction" is not uncommon in languages. For example, in old French, "hui" means "this day", just like "hoy" in Spanish, "oggi" in Italian and "heute" in German.

In modern French, "today" (aujourd'hui) can be analysed as "on the day of this day".
In Spanish, to mean "today", people can say "hoy en dìa", in Italian "al giorno d'oggi" and in German "heutzutage", which all have the similar meaning of "the day of this day" or "nowadays".

In French, when people want to emphasise, they sometimes even say "au jour d'aujour'dui" (literally: "on the day of the day of this day").

Let's end the discussion with the first 2 lines from a famous poem of Li Bai:

弃我去者，**昨日之日**不可留。
乱我心者，**今日之日**多烦忧。

* 李白 《宣州谢朓楼饯别校书叔云》


---

### Answer by username_6 on 2023-07-04. Score: -1

Sometimes you should regard Chinese as a music. We use two characters as a word to make it sound more melodious, especially the common words. "今天" is used in daily discourse (even in old days), so we commonly use "今天".

But in the old days, it is hard to write more characters, so people reduced number of writing as much as possible, forming the habit of using a single character to express more meaning in old Chinese documents. So, you would only see "今" used in these old writings, or idioms followed from old documents. If you used this single character in daily discourse, people would think "what's wrong with you?"

As a side note, sometimes "今" or "今天" does not mean exactly today, but recent days (or even years), like 美国今不如昔、今日美国乱象丛生. Don't ask why, just speak Chinese like singing a song (do you ask why a note here when singing a song?), and you'll automatically know.

> **Comments:**
> **username_7**: Welcome to Chinese StackExchange, and thanks for your contribution! Melody or prosody surely plays its part in the contrast between mono-syllabic and bisyllabic words in modern Chinese; could you elaborate on that a bit?  

---

