Use of the prepositions FOR and SINCE

‘For’ and ‘since’ are prepositions.  They’re used before expressions of time.

For example:  “John has lived in Canada for 8 months.”

“John has lived in Canada since March.”

There are some important differences in meaning between ‘for’ and ‘since’:

• ‘Since’ + expression of time refers to when the action started. In the above example, John’s life in Canada started in March.  It does not directly tell you how long he’s lived in Canada although you can figure this out.  ‘Since” is always used with the present perfect tense and it indicates that the action is NOT finished.

 

• ‘For’ + expression of time means “for how long”. In the above example, John has lived in Canada for 8 months.  Because ‘has lived’ is in the present perfect tense, you know that he lives in Canada now.  However, it is also possible to use ‘for’ with the past tense.  In the sentence ‘John lived in Canada for 8 months.’, you know that John does not live in Canada now, and you  know how long he lived in Canada before.

 

‘For’ and ‘since’ are used with following types of expressions:

for + how long:

for an hour

for 2 months

for several days

for 5 years

 

since + when:

since 7 o’clock

since November

since Wednesday

since 1998

 

EXERCISE:

Write ‘for’ or ‘since’ in the blanks below:

1. Hamid has studied English since he was 18 years old.
2. They’ve lived in their condo ________ last September.
3. I’ve lived in Toronto _________ last April.
4. Svetlana has gone to LINC ________5 months.
5. She’s been in Level 3 _______ 2 weeks.
6. Maria has spoken Spanish ________ she was a small child.
7. Igor and his wife have been Canadian citizens _________ last year.
8. Yoko hasn’t talked to her brother __________ several weeks.
9. We’ve studied English ___________ July.
10. She’s lived in Canada __________ 8 months.
11. Hong has worked as a librarian __________ 2015.
12. Miguel has been an artist __________ many years.
13. He’s worked as a computer engineer ___________ many years.
14. They’ve lived in their house __________ last year.
15. Carlos and Rosalinda have been friends with their neighbours ___________ a long time.

 

ANSWERS:

2. since  3. since  4. for  5. for  6. since  7. since  8. for  9. since  10. for  11. since  12. for

13. for  14. since  15. for