"Since last year"

[thegooseking]

みなさん、こんにちは、

Today I am curious about how to express "since last year" in Japanese. There seem to be two ways of doing this.

昨年から (sakunen kara)
昨年以来 (sakunen irai)

Can anyone help me understand the difference between these two things?

I'll give a guess, but it's just a guess, so please correct me if I'm wrong. I would guess 昨年から is used for things that started last year and are still ongoing, while 昨年以来 is used for things that have happened since last year.

昨年から、会社の利益は上がっています。
Sakunen kara, kaisha no rieki wa agatte imasu - Since last year, company profits have been rising.

昨年以来、会社の利益は上がりました。
Sakunen irai, kaisha no rieki wa agarimashita - Since last year, company profits have risen.

Is this right?

よろしくおねがいします、
小狼

[Murius]

I won't say yours are wrong but the standard way of expressing since last year is 昨年来 (sakunen rai).

From zkanji:

来 - らい - 1) next (year, etc.) 2) since (last month, etc.)
以来 - いらい - since, henceforth
昨年来 - さくねんらい - since last year

惜しい !!!

[Murius]

One more proof things aren't that easy in the real world, this comes from 盤上の詰みと罰*, a manga on shogi:

私,１７歳の時倒れて以来
watashi, 17 sai no toki taorete irai
I've been in a coma** since I was 17.



* 盤上の罪と罰 Got the pun?
** Not really coma, 倒れて should be "collapse" or "confined to bed", however I have reasons to translate as coma since the character does not know a thing about what happened in the outside world for the last 4 years.

[community.japanese]

小狼さん、
今日は。
から and 以来 have the same meaning in your case.
If I have to tell the difference between them, it would be 和語 or 漢語.
からis written in hiragana and it’s wago which is a Japanese original word.
以来 is kango which is a word from China and it sounds more formal than the other.
昨年来　and 昨年以来 have the same meaning.
Your examples sentences are correct.

Murius san,
Konnichiwa.
昨年来　and 昨年以来 have the same meaning.

Yuki 由紀
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