最近
さいきん
hepburn saikin
recently, lately
Part of speech · noun / adverb
Pattern visualization
Examples
- 最近、よく寝られない。Lately I can't sleep well.
- 最近のニュースを見ましたか。Did you see the recent news?
Collocations
最近 (saikin, recently)この頃 (kono goro, lately)近頃 (chikagoro, recent times)最新 (saishin, latest)近年 (kinnen, recent years)
Mnemonic
Saikin (最近) is the Sino-Japanese "recently / lately" — works as adverb or noun. Saikin yoku nerarenai (lately I can't sleep, adverb), saikin no nyuusu (recent news, noun + no). Register cluster: kono goro (lately, conversational), chikagoro (recent, slightly formal), saikin (Sino, general), kinnen (Sino, formal-written "recent years"), saishin (latest, cutting-edge). Konogoro / chikagoro lean conversational and a bit older-speaker; saikin is general. Korean "choe-geun / yo-jeum / geun-rae / geun-nyeon" parallels. Saikin spans a recent past of days to months; saishin points to the very latest.
Quick check
Difference between saikin and saishin?