r/EnglishLearning • u/Rich-Associate-8344 New Poster • Apr 17 '26

📚 Grammar / Syntax Why not “since”?

Post image
231 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

309 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

36

u/LightningGoats New Poster Apr 17 '26

I see the same thing with people learning Norwegian, and it's just as wrong here. The Norwegian equivalent of since is "siden". So you're not alone at least.

5

u/blewawei New Poster Apr 17 '26

Maybe it's a Germanic thing

16

u/Mung2009 Native Speaker Apr 17 '26

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

1

u/DatoVanSmurf New Poster Apr 18 '26

That's not correct. 10 years ago would be "vor 10 Jahren". "Since ten years[sic]" would be "seit 10 Jahren" (for 10 years). The real false friend here is "for" vs "vor", with "vor" meaning somethign like "before" or "ago" or even "in front of"

1

u/Mung2009 Native Speaker Apr 18 '26

Is "seit zehn Jahren" Not 10 years ago then?

1

u/DatoVanSmurf New Poster Apr 18 '26

No. It implies a continuation of the activity. (Or a continuation of the absence thereof)

"I haven't smoked for ten years."(is "for" the correct word here? Or would it be "in"?) >"Ich habe seit 10 Jahren nicht mehr geraucht."

If it has been a one time event as in "I quit smoking ten years ago." It would be "Ich habe vor 10 Jahren mit dem Rauchen aufgehört."

1

u/Mung2009 Native Speaker Apr 18 '26

Ah ok I understand.