今ごろ in more concrete situations

Question

My understanding of 今ごろ has been that it is usually used in a more abstract, subjunctive-ish sense, like:

• 彼は今ごろ眠っているだろう
• 明日の今ごろはロスにいるはずだ

And in most "concrete" places, it is ungrammatical, like:

• それでは今ごろテストを始めます
• 私は今ごろ嬉しいです

But I've encountered a concrete usage, at least as an out of context sentence:

• 今ごろそんなこと言わないで

This doesn't feel like it should work. Why does it?

Answer 1

いまごろ has two senses.

１ だいたい今と同じ時期や時刻。今時分。「去年の今頃」

２ 時間に遅れたとき、意外なときなどに、あきれた気持ちをこめて用いる語。今時分。今どき。「今頃行っても売り切れだよ」

Basically both mean this time/now, but (1) with some shifting of time or place or (2) with the implication that the speaker thinks it is (too) late.

The first two sentences in the question use いまごろ in the first sense, the last sentence in the second sense, so that it means

• You shouldn't say that now (You should have said earlier).

This sense of いまごろ is mostly replaceable by いまさら.