In Genki 1 Lesson 3 it explains how the に particle has many meanings but there we learn two, ‘Goal of movement’ and ‘Time’.
One example sentence is:
今日学校に行きます。
Because 今日(today) indicates time, and 学校(school) indicates goal of movement, it seems logical that the に particle should also be after the word 今日, making the sentence:
今日に学校に行きます。
I’ve heard the term らいしゅう(来週)(next week) is an exception to the に particle. My question is, is the word 今日 also an exception?
4 comments
Relative time (today, tomorrow, last week…) and “every~” as well as the question word いつ never take the particle に.
に focuses, so it would go on anything you could point at in a calendar or clock as it’s always there. Relative time is always changing so we can’t focus on it.
Relative time does not get に. 今日 is a relative time word. Therefore, 今日 does not get に.
What I mean by “relative” is, if I said 今日 right now, and then I said 今日 again and again 24, 48, and 72 hours later, the time that 今日 would refer to would be different each time. That’s why 来週 also doesn’t get に. If I said 来週 last week, it should mean the current week. If I said 来週 this week, it wouldn’t be this week, but the week after this week. Get it?
Are you using the first edition of Genki? If so, you may want to upgrade as the second edition definitely had a section on this.
How it was explained to me was that if you’d use “on Wednesday” in a sentence for English, you’d use “水曜日に” the same way in Japanese.