recently

Recently means a short time ago. You saw her recently, the shop recently changed hands, and a recently painted door still smells of paint.

It points at the near past without saying how near, so it could mean yesterday or last month, and it stretches with the size of the story. English pairs it with the present perfect, as in she has recently moved, and with the past simple, as in she moved recently, and both are correct. Until recently is the phrase for something that stopped being true not long ago: until recently he drove a taxi. Put it in front of the verb or at the end of the sentence. Lately is its close cousin, but lately leans on the present perfect and prefers a stretch of time to a single event, as in I have not slept well lately.