から: "From 〇〇" ・まで: "To 〇〇"

Introduction

Not too long ago, you learned your first usage of から: expressing a reason. But there’s more to it than that! Today, I’m going to teach you how to use it to express a “starting point”, and how this meaning can vary depending on context. After that, we’ll bring this lesson to a full circle by also telling you all about its partner まで, whose usage is to express the opposite: an “ending point”.

Starting with から

It’s time to level up our understanding of から! This second usage of から is all about indicating the starting point of something in terms of time or space, and it can even express a source. In fact, it’s very similar to how you would use “from” in English so this just might be a breeze for you!