# 今非昔比 / 如今不如往惜 / 今不如昔



## wishonatrish

If I want to say that "the present is no match for the past" i.e. the past was much much much better than what things are today, and I wanted to say this in conversation, which of these phrases would I use in conversation? ＂今非昔比＂ /＂如今不如往惜＂/ "今不如昔"

Also, are these phrases too formal?


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## BODYholic

Among the three, I would say 今非昔比 is the most common. It's definitely not too formal a term because people do use it in their daily life. However, there are other more colloquial expressions like "现在不比从前" which sounds less profound than the former.


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## SuperXW

I would say 今非昔比 is the most common too. A little bit formal, but people could still say this in conversations.
今不如昔 is understandable, but not as commonly used as 今非昔比.
如今不如往惜 sounds a little bit weird to me, because the 4-character idiom could definitely replace it, while sounds more refined.
Also, it should be 往昔, not 往惜.


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## Ben pan

我觉得，今不胜昔也可以。


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## SuperXW

Ben pan said:


> 我觉得，今不胜昔也可以。


你這麼跟我說話我八成聽不懂~


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## stellari

For me, 今非昔比 usually means the present is (much) better than the past; 今不如昔 is the other way around (although the present may not be so much worse than the past in this case). So 今不如昔 is a correct (although may not be the best) translation here.
I couldn't think of a better translation at this point though...


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## Jerry Chan

有趣現象
「今非昔比」本來是說以前跟現在無法相比(現在比以前好很多)
現在卻往往成了相反意思
不管了，反正就是「面目全非」


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## xiaolijie

Jerry Chan said:


> 有趣現象
> 「今非昔比」本來是說以前跟現在無法相比(現在比以前好很多)
> 現在卻往往成了相反意思
> 不管了，反正就是「面目全非」


不管怎样，总有这个可以用的句话：「你说的是什么意思？」


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## SuperXW

Oh yeah...
You guys has brought up an interesting question. I wasn't aware of this at the beginning...
Apparently now 今非昔比 only means "today is different to the past", hard to tell if it's in a good way or a bad way...
_In the past_, the idiom could only mean "today is better", but _today_, the idiom itself is different... Should I say 今非昔比的意思已經今非昔比了？


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## depaul93

＂今非昔比＂ or  "今不如昔" is OK in daily conversation~


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## gracyst

今非昔比 means things have changed greatly compared with the past and most of the time it refers to good changes. It is OK to use it in daily life. 
While 如今不如往惜 and 今不如昔 have similar meaning. They both mean the past is better than today. But we don't use 如今不如往惜 in conversation. You can simply say 现在不如以前了/现在比不上以前了。


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## longxianchen

> the past was much much much better than what things are today


今非昔比   meaning the past is much worse than now
今不如昔  meaing  the past is better than now

I used to teach Chenese, so believe me,even if I'm now teaching English


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## Ben pan

SuperXW said:


> 你這麼跟我說話我八成聽不懂~


虎踞龙盘今胜昔。听得懂吧？ 那么今不胜昔，为什么就不行？我也觉得它不好，所以我之前就说“也可以”， 意思是说，它表达了一样的意思，但略差。但更想先听听你的理由。


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## SuperXW

Ben pan said:


> 虎踞龙盘今胜昔。听得懂吧？ 那么今不胜昔，为什么就不行？我也觉得它不好，所以我之前就说“也可以”， 意思是说，它表达了一样的意思，但略差。但更想先听听你的理由。


我也是只是说“八成”听不懂，没说一定听不懂。 如果是在谈论诗词，还是听得懂的。


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