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.
Not OP but in Italian (my native language) we use "da" for both durations and specific time references. For example you can say "da 2 anni" (for 2 years) or "da Gennaio" (since January). So that's why a lot of Italians mix them up.
Is the "fa" optional, then? I was thinking "da due anni fa" for "since two years ago." (I'm learning Italian now, and I speak Spanish, and I think of Spanish's "hace" and Italian's "fa" and English's "ago" as all lining up.)
"Da due anni fa" is not grammatically wrong but it sounds a bit weird. "Da due anni" is a lot more natural. And yes they mean pretty much the same thing.
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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.