I’ve been learning grammar through Imabi and I was reading the 73rd lesson on Time Phrases + Ni. (Link: [Time Phrases + Ni (imabi.net)](https://www.imabi.net/timephrasesni.htm) )
I’ve been struggling to understand this one and, as far as I can tell, the particle Ni only goes with absolute time phrases, while relative time phrases do not work with Ni. The problem is that I don’t understand what makes a time phrase relative or absolute, especially since a lot of time words can act as both relative and absolute. And it’s even worse with representative time phrases.
Could someone ELI5 what relative, absolute and representative time phrases are?
1 comment
I’m sure someone will provide a more detailed response, but just at a high level the definition is within the two words.
* **Absolute:** Date that does not change based on the day you say it. January 3rd (1月3日) is absolute. You don’t need to do any mental math to know the date referenced.
* **Relative:** Date that changes based on the day you say it. The day after tomorrow (明後日) depends upon the day you say it. If you say it on January 1st, it’s January 3rd. If you say it a different day, it references a different date. It’s relative.
I looked at the Imabi chapter you’re referencing, and it’s really confusing. The author makes it seem like there will be some differentiation between use of に with Absolute, Relative, Intermediate, and Referential time phrases, but doesn’t define each in an organized way, or group examples into the provided categories. All you get are a big list of example sentences and references to “representative temporal nouns” which is a phrase found nowhere else on the internet in English.
Personally, I wouldn’t spend too much time thinking about this. You’ll naturally get used to what time phrases are accompanied by に and which aren’t through continued exposure to Japanese. Your time is better spent elsewhere.