Use anytime when you’re referring to a single moment or period of time, and use any time when you’re referring to multiple moments or periods of time. Be careful to choose the right word for the context so as not confuse your readers. They have similar meanings but are used in different ways. 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. Anytime is one word, while any time is two words. 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. Just plain "soon" is much more neutral and could refer to any upcoming timeframe, depending on context. 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. 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: 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: As society moves away from more formal language, using synonymous words and phrases including no problem, no stress, or anytime have become commonplace. "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. Anytime means you’re welcome when you use it colloquially. Here are some examples of how to use anytime in a sentence. There does not seem to be a strong convention about when to write "any time now" as one or two words. Anytime is a word that is commonly used to express availability or willingness to do something. However, between the two, any time after is still more. Note that "anytime" is an alternative and you may see the similar expression anytime soon written with "anytime" as one word. Despite so, both anytime after and any time after are grammatically correct and acceptable. 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. "Some time soon, Nana will show up with the cookies." We should arrive anytime between 5 and 6 p.m. Example Sentences You can call me anytime. "Any time now" means that you don't know the exact time, but that you expect it to happen very soon momentarily. Anytime Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster anytime adverb anytime e-n-tm : at any time whatever The bus should be here anytime now.
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