Can I use "recently" and "lately" interchangeably? Are they the same?
For example, I haven't seen Mike recently/lately.
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HI. Lately is more continuous, something that you expect to happen and often happens e.g. I have n't seen Mike lately meaning I often see Mike but have n't seen him for a while. Recently is used to describe something that happened in the recent past but does n't have the continuous nature of something happening often e.g. I saw Mike recently.
Recently is used when you are talking about something that has passed. For eg., There recently was a huge storm. Lately is used for something that is happening continuously or is currently happening. For eg., Lately, I have been reading books about history.
recently is used for something that has already happened, and lately is for ongoing event, and both are adverbs, grammatically they both seem correct, depending on the tense the sentence is referred to.
You can use "recently" for non-repetitive actions and "lately" for repetitive actions. So that would be "We talked over coffee recently" and "I have been talking to her a lot more lately".
In that context they have the same meaning. :D
Both words are indefinite. "Lately" is used to refer to events that occurred in the past but are ongoing. "Recently" is used to refer to events that occurred in the near past but aren't necessarily ongoing.
Example recently i quit smoking I have not been feeling very unwell lately
Recently is used for something that has already happened whereas lately is used for an ongoing event ( it has more of a continuous or repetitive meaning)
Hey, they are the same but Recently is more defined as "not long ago" while lately is defined as in the recent past
Hello Solamio, Yes, you can they both mean almost the same. They both are adverbs and adverbs modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. Both take the suffix 'ly' from the adjectives 'recent' and 'late'. Checking the meaning of the adjectives will give you a more accurate meaning of the adverbs and how to use them. Recently is a time adverb. You use it when you want to express that something happened a short while ago. i.e: I have recently changed my mind about that subject. Lately is another time adverb. You use it when you want to express that something has happened in the recent past. i.e: Lately, I haven't seen her. Greetings,
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