Every Journey Has
a Beginning and an End.
From home to the station. From nine until five. Japanese can now give your day a beginning and an endpoint.
A starting point.
An endpoint.
You already know how to say what you do, where you do it, when you do it, how often you do it and how long it lasts. Now we can give an activity or journey its boundaries.
From seven.
Until nine.
You don't always
need both.
から can mark only the beginning. まで can mark only the end. Put them together when you want the whole range.
From home
to the station.
The route becomes
part of the sentence.
Where does it begin?
Where does it end?
From what time
until what time?
Once you understand each boundary separately, Japanese can ask for both in one compact question.
A range can stretch
across your week.
Frequency. Duration.
Starting point.
The pieces from earlier lessons are no longer separate. They can now live inside the same sentence.
Where from?
How far?
The same Japanese belongs
to different people.
One sentence can now hold
much more of a day.
WHAT → WHERE → WHEN → WITH WHOM → HOW → HOW OFTEN → HOW LONG → FROM WHERE / WHEN → TO WHERE / WHEN
Nothing here replaces what you learned before. Two small particles simply give the sentence two more places to stand.
Between here
and there.
From home to the station. From morning until evening. From one ordinary place to another. A day is full of beginnings and endings we barely notice.
から and まで simply give those quiet boundaries a voice.