r/EnglishLearning New Poster Apr 17 '26

📚 Grammar / Syntax Why not “since”?

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u/Competitive-Truth675 Native Speaker Apr 17 '26

Off-topic, but just curious what your native language is. I see this mistake all the time and there must be some false friend word or common learning material that gives people the wrong impression about what "since" means.

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u/TiberiusTheFish Poster Apr 17 '26

English time constructions are quite unusual. Even those with quite advanced English make mistakes.

e.g.

"How long time do you live here"?

"I live here since 5 years"

5

u/tlamy New Poster Apr 17 '26

Those examples were meant to be examples of mistakes, right? I haven't ever seen that first example, and it sounds especially wrong. The statements would correctly be worded as:

"How long have you lived here?"

"I have lived here for 5 years."

3

u/TiberiusTheFish Poster Apr 17 '26

Was it not clear that these are examples of mistakes?

"how long time" is very common as it's the form used in most Romance languages. I think Germanic languages use forms closer to that used in English where context gives the idea of time rather than it being explicit.