How do I use "as of now" correctly?

Question

Just to clarify, I am not a native English speaker. I occasionally hear from other non-native English speakers the use of the phrase: "As of now" with the meaning of Currently.

Initially I did not understand what they meant and it took me a while to understand that for them saying: "As of now it works like that" in their mind meant "Currently it works like that".

I think that As of now is only used to indicate From now on. The proper phrase they should be using should be As is now. Am I wrong on this?

Answer 1

Perhaps the people OP hears using as of yesterday/today/tomorrow/now/etc. misunderstand the significance of the as of part. From Cambridge Dictionaries online...

as of/from - starting from a particular time or date:
As of next month, all the airline's fares will be going up.

Anyone with access to a suitable dictionary definition (as is now the case for OP) can see that although anything which is true as of now is also true currently, there's a difference in the strong implications of each form...

as of now = it wasn't true until very recently, but from now on it is/will be true
currently = it won't be true in the [near] future AND (possibly) wasn't true at some point in the past

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Offhand, I can think of no context where as is now could directly replace as of now without some other changes to maintain "grammaticality", regardless of the intended meaning.

Answer 2

This is more like a follow-up question, but I feel it is better to be posted here (rather than a separated question), for the sake of continuation and completeness.

So, to summarize the current chosen answer, and a very vivid comment gave by @FumbleFingers (which, ____, is hidden by default):

usages like "As of now I'm a married man" strongly imply ...but I wasn't, before now. If I wanted to imply that the condition was true in the past but might not be soon, I'd use something like "As yet I'm unmarried". And if I didn't mean to imply anything at all about whether the condition was or will be different at some other time, why would I both mentioning now in the first place?

Then the implications of whether a topic was/is/will be true is represented in the row 1, 2 and 3 of the following table. So my follow-up question is, can the #3 as yet also be used in a positive sentence, such as "As yet I'm married"? If not, can I use for now i.e. "For now, I'm married"? Note that I was obviously unmarried when I was a newborn, but I've been married for several years now, can as yet and/or for now be used in such case?

+---+-----------+-------------------------------------+--------+---------------------+
|   | Phrase    | In the past                         | At now | In future           |
+---+-----------+-------------------------------------+--------+---------------------+
| 1 | As of now | "was not true until very recently"? | TRUE   | Remains true (**)   |
| 2 | Currently | Possibly false                      | TRUE   | Probably false      |
| 3 | As yet    | "was (always?) true in the past"    | TRUE   | "might not be soon" |
| 4 | For now?  | Has been true for quite a while (*) | TRUE   | may or may not be   |
+---+-----------+-------------------------------------+--------+---------------------+

* It might not be true at the very beginning, or it might not remain true during
  the lengthy history. What the speaker wants to say is, to his/her best knowledge,
  something has been true for a while and it is true right now, but no guarantee
  for the future. (Isn't this the most common case in daily conversation?)

** Fow what it's worth, I think "as of now" does not necessarily guarantee the topic
   would remain true for the eternity.

To give some context, here comes some examples. Does the implications defined in the table above apply?

1. As of now, I am a married man.
2. I'm currently married.
3. As yet I'm unmarried.
4. For now I'm married.

Or we can change to a different context, in order to NOT mess up with our spouse. :-)

1. As of now, I am living in downtown.
2. I'm currently living in downtown.
3. As yet I'm NOT living in downtown.
4. For now I'm living in downtown.

I believe situation #4 "has been true for quite a while; not sure for future" is more common, so I want to understand what is the proper way to say that. For now, I'll stick with "for now".

Answer 3

As actually used in American English, constructions dating something imply or suggest change or at least the material possibility of change. It would be very odd to say that "a triangle currently has three sides" or that "a triangle has three sides as of now."

When someone says that "Y became effective as of date Z," it is implied that Y was not effective before date Z. "X is now true," X is currently true," or "X is true as of now" all imply either that X may not have been true in the past or that X may not continue to be true in the future or both.

In my opinion, however, careful speakers of American English use the "as of now" construction to emphasize the implied temporal qualification on a statement. That is, I would interpret "X is true as of now" as meaning either "but it certainly has not always been true" or "but it may well not be true forever."

Answer 4

There is a subtle difference in meaning, between ‘as of now’ and ‘currently’.

‘As of now’ is often used to actively report current status.

Think of ‘As of now’ being like - ‘stop! Freeze the moment!’ Take a photo! And tell you what’s going on.

It also can mean that the speaker is telling you ‘the best that he knows - so far’ ie ‘as of’ or what is going on ‘now’. His or her own, ‘on the ground’ direct experience. ‘As of now’ is often used to report direct, step by step progress:

• Workman: ‘As of now, we can see the cable, and we’ll be connecting it to the router shortly’

• Reporter: ‘As of now, the suspects have been isolated in the building, by the police’

• Project Manager: ‘As of now, we’ve identified 9 problems, fixed 3, working on 3’

• Friend: ‘As of now, I’m working at Smetterley’s, but I don’t like the conditions much’

Note how ‘as of now’ implies that working at Smetterley’s - may change.

‘Currently’ is slightly more ‘ongoing’. It means more that the situation may have started earlier and has been going for a while, and may go on for longer. It often implies that the situation is more remotely controlled, not under the direct control of the speaker. Or it gives a more general and slightly longer term view, of what’s going on.

• Workman: ‘Currently, the best wifi provider is ABC’

• Reporter: ‘Currently, the police are working on a peaceful solution to the crisis’

• Project Manager: ‘Currently we have 9 problems, about 50% resolved, time to fix all, about 6 days’.

• Friend: ‘I’m looking for a new job currently, as I’m not too happy at Smetterley’s’

Differentiation

• I’m working at Smetterley’s = no change planned
• As of now, I’m at Smetterley’s = I am at Smetterley’s but (implied) I am actively seeking a new job now
• I’m currently at Smetterley’s = I’m considering getting a new job, but no action yet

As is now

You cannot use ‘as is now’ - that’s not correct. But you can use ‘as is’ to mean ‘as it is now’ or ‘without change’.

• Friend: ‘Although the sofa has been delivered in black instead of pink, we kind of like it, so we think we’ll leave it ‘as is’.

• Workman: ‘Although the pipe is protruding there, we’re going to leave it ‘as is’, as it might be dangerous to move’

‘As is’ often shows up in inverted commas when used like this - possibily because it is also a legal term, used in warranties, as well as being a part of everyday speech, as shown above.

• Goods in the auction are sold ‘as seen’ - ie ‘as is’ - no returns!

Further useful ‘as of now’ examples:

https://www.quora.com/What-does-as-of-now-something-mean-in-English-language

Answer 5

As of is used to show the time or date from which something starts, "as of now" means something starts from now.

Answer 6

Going by the usage meaning in India, "as of now" is a more emphatic way of restricting our point of discussion to the present situation

Answer 7

"as of now", simply means now, which still is redundant. Verbs have tenses to inform when: past; present; future. If the verb is present tense, the verb means "now" or "as of now"...neither needs to be said (or written). Example: The temperature is 57 degrees F. You don't need to say (or write) "As of now, the temperature is 57 degrees F." The verb tense takes care. The use of this redundancy, like most redundancies (close proximity comes to mind) crept in to popular use from being used by authoritative voices trying to sound important.