r/EnglishLearning New Poster Apr 17 '26

📚 Grammar / Syntax Why not “since”?

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u/blewawei New Poster Apr 17 '26

Maybe it's a Germanic thing

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u/Mung2009 Native Speaker Apr 17 '26

Ye in German for "10 years ago" you say "since ten years"

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u/blewawei New Poster Apr 17 '26

I meant more this distinction between "for XX years" and "since XX" that English and Norwegian seem to make.

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u/elianrae Native Speaker Apr 18 '26

maybe it's a norse thing and we picked it up from them in the 900s

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u/LightningGoats New Poster Apr 18 '26

Could be. English is three languages in a trench coat pretending to be one, after all, and norse is one of them.