How to say right now, right over there etc


I was wondering how you could say **right** now or **right** over there.

Say you haven't done any of your assignments and you want to say something
along the lines of "If my boss walked in **right** now (right this second),
I'd be done for."

I usually just used ちょうど今 in these situations, but I came to doubt whether
this is actually correct, and I thought there has to be a better way of
phrasing this.

Same goes for **right** over there. Say someone was asking where a certain
thing is, and it's extremely close or in plain sight and I want to emphasize
it being close.




I believe that your first "right" (in "right this second") and second "right"
(in "right over there") are different things. The first one indicates the very
moment when you're uttering the words (sorry if I'm wrong), but the second one
is "extremely close" but not the very place where you stand, or refer to.

> I usually just used ちょうど今 in these situations

Time expressions are a bit delicate. ちょうど今 is rather "just (before) now", or
the "infinitesimal past" from the current moment. It's not what we use for the
exact current moment, but could be understood.

  * just now (infinitesimal past): たった今, ちょうど今
  * right now (the current moment): 今この時, 今この瞬間
  * right now (infinitesimal future): すぐ, 今すぐ

Likewise,

  * right here (under your feet): ちょうどここ, まさにここ／この場所
  * right there (almost no distance): すぐそこ, すぐあそこ (if something is in your way there)

So I'd say:

> If my boss walked in **right** now (right this second), I'd be done for.  
>  もし今 **この瞬間** 上司が入ってきたら、一巻の終わりだ。  
>  もし今 **ここで** 上司が入ってきたら、一巻の終わりだ。 (an advanced idiom, isn't it :)
>
> [It's] **right** over there.  
>  **すぐ** そこです。

* * *

**PS**

Calling out "right over here" doesn't need any "right" in Japanese. We just
say ここ or こっち.

