Japanese Language Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for students, teachers, and linguists wanting to discuss the finer points of the Japanese language. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
「今から」 means "from now on" and 「これから」 means "from here on" or "from here". So, これから actually has 2 meanings.
So are the "from here on" meaning of 「これから」 and "from now on" meaning of 「今から」always interchangeable in Japanese? In english I guess they almost everywhere are but "from now on" is used more because "from here on" can also be used to signify place.
Please provide examples if they are different in usage.
今から tends to refer to relatively short time frames, for example the next few hours (e.g., 今から野球をしませんか, 今から風呂に入ります, 今から話すことをよく聞きなさい). これから can safely refer to both short and very long time. For example, これからの10年 is more natural than 今からの10年, although the latter is not incorrect. Likewise, since "from now on" in English usually refers to very long time, I think これから(は)(ずっと) is the normal choice.
