Talk:since
Add topicperfect tense is used before the preposition "since" eg. He has been here since i last saw him
- Yes, that's important, since a lot of non-native English speakers will write something like:
"I am living in London since 1987."
which is incorrect. It should be:
"I have lived in London since 1987."
81.159.56.122 15:34, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
This is missing the sense in which "since" is a synonym of "as" & "because".
Phil Last 2009-01-09 17.38
I think of "since" as - strictly - meaning from after the time mentioned. "Since Friday" would mean "starting on Saturday and from then onwards". But the meaning seems perhaps to be shifting to "on Friday, and from then onwards".Penglish 20:03, 28 October 2010 (UTC)
- Can you show evidence of your claimed meaning? Would "since last year" mean only from 2010?! Equinox ◑ 20:10, 28 October 2010 (UTC)
2. subsequently
[edit]At some point between then and now The department had an engineer, who has since retired --Backinstadiums (talk) 16:38, 17 May 2021 (UTC)
Usage note: vs from
[edit]According to Swan's Practical,
Since: with a perfect tense, especially when we measure duration from a starting point: We'd been running since/*from six o’clock, so we were pretty exhausted. vs I’ll be vacationing from/*since Tue. evening (on). However, from is sometimes possible with a present perfect, especially in expressions that mean ‘right from the start': From/Since their wedding, they’ve quarrelled day in, day out. JMGN (talk) 19:00, 20 March 2025 (UTC)
Usage note: tense (BrE vs AmE)
[edit]According to Swan's Practical,
In BrE, present and past tenses are common in the structure It is/was ... since..., but AmE prefers perfect tenses: It's (been) a long time since my last visit. JMGN (talk) 21:13, 31 March 2025 (UTC)
Usage note: elision
[edit]According to Swan's Practical, many time conjunctions (after, before, since, when, while, whenever, once and until) can often be followed by -ing forms or past participles instead of subjects and full verbs. Similarly, after if, when, while, until, once, unless and (al)though, a pronoun subject and the verb be can often be dropped, especially in common fixed expressions like if necessary. JMGN (talk) 08:18, 23 June 2025 (UTC)
