About "nowadays"

Question

Maggga4 in Poland asked, Is it possible to use nowadays with a continuous tense? For example, can I say, “He is opening a massage studio nowadays”? 

Answer

Nowadays is an adverb that means “these days” or “during this time.” It suggests a period of months or years, rather than days, and it is normally used to talk about things that happen again and again, such as habits or routines.

Here are some example sentences with nowadays:

• Nowadays, many people need two jobs in order to make ends meet.
• People don't wear hats much nowadays.

Nowadays is typically used with the simple present tense, as in the examples above, but it is fine to use it with a continuous tense, as long as you are referring to a something that repeats over a period of time. Here are two examples of nowadays with the present continuous:

• Nowadays, I'm relying on my husband to do the food shopping. 
• A lot of women can’t afford to stay home with the kids nowadays.

However, your sentence about the man opening a massage studio, sounds awkward with nowadays, because it sounds like the man is starting a business, and he is probably not opening the same business again and again.

Here are some alternatives that would sound better to most English speakers:

• He is opening a massage studio soon.
• He is opening a massage studio next week.
• He is preparing to open a massage studio.
• He plans to open a massage studio next month.

I hope this helps.