至今grammar point · tier 1 · up to now 至今 (reaching the present, still in force)
· zhìjīn
Adverb marking a stretch that runs from some past start all the way up to the present moment, with the situation still holding now.
字源 FORM what the parts do
至 is something come down to the ground line (一) and going no farther, the far edge of arriving — its 'until' sense. 今 is borrowed for the sound of 'now'; the graph first wrote a mouthful held, not the present. Read together, the run lands on now: arrived as far as today, and stopped there.
故事 STORY a scene to remember it by
A line drawn out of the past reaches the standing mark of today and rests its point there, still unbroken.
字源記憶法
框 · Frame
[clause, past start] ，至今 [仍/還 + still-true state]
觸 · Trigger
Something began back then and is unchanged right up to this moment.
序 · The move
1Set the past start — the word said, the thing built, the day it began.Is there a real anchor back in time for the line to run from? No anchor, no 至今.
2Put 至今 before the present state, pairing it with 仍 or 還 for the still-holding sense.Does the state hold AT now, not just sometime before? 至今 lands on the present and stays.
3State what is still true today.Is it unfinished and ongoing? If the thing is over and done, the line stopped early — reach for 過, not 至今.
例 · Examples
1他講了一句話，至今zhìjīn — up to now, to this day仍réng — still, as before讓我印象深刻yìnxiàng shēnkè — to leave a deep impression。
He said one line, and to this day it still leaves a deep mark on me.
至今 keeps the line live to the present (學了三年，至今還在學 — and still learning now). 過 marks an experience finished and over (學過三年 — did three years of it, done). Reaching-now-and-holding vs done-before-and-closed.
Both run a stretch unbroken. 一直 only says the run had no gap (一直在學 — kept at it); it does not pin the far end. 至今 pins that end on the present moment (至今還在學 — up to right now). Unbroken vs unbroken-and-landed-on-today.
到現在
Same target, the present. 到現在 is the plain everyday phrase; 至今 carries the literary, written register and leans on a following 仍/還.
✗ 我至今要去 (a future plan; the line cannot reach forward) → ✓ 我至今還沒去 (up to now, still not gone)
✗ 他至今學過中文 (over-and-done event) → ✓ 他至今還在學中文 (still learning right up to now)
✗ 至今他說了一句話 (至今 fronting a one-time past act) → ✓ 他說了一句話，至今我還記得 (the line runs from that act to now)
English 'until now' often implies the thing is about to change ('until now I didn't know'). Chinese 至今 carries no such turn — it states the situation is unchanged and still holding, with no implied break coming.