![]() ![]() In response to the original questioner's concern that "the words seem to conflict and are sort of nebulous", the response is that "any time now" is just an idiom-while its meaning is related to the words, the meaning of the whole phrase is not entirely deducible from the words themselves-it has a special meaning that must be memorized. It would be out of place in formal writing. Nearly all the instances from the Corpus of Contemporary American English are from fiction and the spoken corpus. "Any time now" is a pretty informal, mostly spoken phrase. ![]() In the original post, the writer claimed to be a former Navy Seal with a long history of combat experiences, ridden with comical typos and hyperbolic phrases like Gorilla Warfare, 300 Confirmed. Just plain "soon" is much more neutral and could refer to any upcoming timeframe, depending on context. 'Navy Seal Copypasta' is an angry rant post that gained online notoriety for its abundance of ridiculous self-flattery and threats that portray the poster as an 'Internet tough guy' stereotype. The best memes from Instagram, Facebook, Vine, and Twitter about anytime. To me, there is more of an urgent sense of anticipation or expectation with "any time now" than with synonyms like "soon" that is, if someone you says "any time now" you might expect the event to occur during the conversation or very soon. On the right is a cat named Smudge, who is clearly offended that you said he needed a salad. The other answers here give a good definition of "any time now" as "imminent" or "soon", but there are a few things I wanted to add: On the left is Taylor Armstrong from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in 2011, pointing and yelling at someone or some poorly arranged flower vase. The corpus is most useful for understanding how "any time now" is used in this sense - it often has a connotation of impatient waiting (like hoping for the cookies to arrive soon), or a sense of anticipation, not always pleasant: "Any time now" appears in COCA 73 times "anytime now" in COCA, 24 when looking at categories such as fiction, "any time now" is still the winner, but the difference is negligible. There does not seem to be a strong convention about when to write "any time now" as one or two words. Note that "anytime" is an alternative and you may see the similar expression anytime soon written with "anytime" as one word. It looks as if this expression is mainly used in American English, and any time now (see 12) may more often be written with "any time" as two words. 1,458 points 38 comments - Your daily dose of funny memes, reaction meme pictures, GIFs and videos. "Some time soon, Nana will show up with the cookies." "Any time now" means that you don't know the exact time, but that you expect it to happen very soon momentarily. ![]()
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