今年

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: Written 今年 and read ことし, it denotes the calendar year that contains the time of speaking.
• Basic usage: It is used for growing tomatoes for the first time this year and a graduation planned for this autumn.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• Deictic time reference
  • It does not name a fixed year; the actual year changes with the speaker's present time.