Search results
"Any time now" appears in COCA 73 times; "anytime now" in COCA, 24; when looking at categories such as fiction, "any time now" is still the winner, but the difference is negligible. The corpus is most useful for understanding how "any time now" is used in this sense - it often has a connotation of impatient waiting (like hoping for the cookies to arrive soon), or a sense of anticipation, not always pleasant:
Apr 26, 2012 · We know what "any time now" means, indeed: from now on it will happen soon. But in the sentence, which is quite informal, "Now yo'berths's ready any time, Miss" - said by the porter in the train (Pale Horse, Pale Rider, K.A. Porter) -, does it mean the same? I'm not sure, because the words are not in the same order.
Aug 31, 2014 · as of/from - starting from a particular time or date: As of next month, all the airline's fares will be going up. Anyone with access to a suitable dictionary definition (as is now the case for OP) can see that although anything which is true as of now is also true currently, there's a difference in the strong implications of each form...
Jun 1, 2012 · Here is the explanation: "At" is a preposition, so it must be followed by a noun. The noun in the example is "time." "Any" is an adjective modifying the noun "time." It's like "Call me at four o'clock. Call me at night. Call me at any hour of the day or night." But "anytime" is an adverb, like "anyhow" or "anyway."
From a client's perspective, an actual time frame is far more meaningful than any formulation intended to convey "soon but not right away." If you hope that the upgrade will be available within two months but you recognize that it may slip a bit from that schedule, I would recommend expressing the time frame as follows:
May 9, 2012 · Of course now simply means the present moment, so by now means "a period of time ending at the present moment." So no, it is not right to say By now, I won't go to Melbourne and I am not sure what you mean by that. You can put by now at the beginning or at the end of a sentence. It's a matter of what you want to emphasize.
Oct 18, 2012 · At any moment is the correct one. Or simply any moment. The bus will arrive at any moment. The bus will arrive any moment. In a moment means that something will happen very soon, literally any time within the next moment. This makes in any moment senseless. At any moment on the other hand deals with moments as points in time. At any moment will ...
Apr 3, 2012 · Putting emphasis on "now" and it is marking the the moment starting now. The idea is to make a future announcement as well as a present one also. "Now, I am the main stakeholder!" With or without an interjection, it does really mean everything with regardless of the time, but is according to the word stated.
Some Longman dictionaries treat them separately. However, in my opinion, the difference isn't that clear, cf. "for now: from now until a time in the future, esp. when you do not know exactly when in the future" vs. "for the time being: now, used when a situation is likely to change, esp. because an arrangement is only temporary". –
Nov 29, 2017 · Explanation of "until now" in context "Until now, what's what the evidence seemed to suggest" in this example suggests that up until that point, all of the previous evidence was believed. However, new evidence suggests that the previous evidence may be partially incorrect, but nothing has been proven yet.