Hello and welcome back to Easy English with James
Today we're going to look at two commonly
confused words in English, and they are; the words FOR
FOR and SINCE
The reason these two words are very often confused
is in relation to The Present Perfect
Tense. The present perfect tense. That's the tense where you
say things like, "I have been". "I have
seen". "I have never been to
America". "I have never seen that movie".
OK. Also. The present perfect
continuous tense. "I have been working".
"I have been making". "I have been watching".
Ok. Very important tenses in English to make
sound much more like a native speaker. Native speakers use both of these
tenses all the time. But, what people get
confused about, is, when we use FOR and when we use SINCE
and I'm happy to say, there is a really simple rule.
OK. For is used
for a PERIOD OF TIME. Remember we
said, "I have been working." If we want to say
how many hours, I have been working
we would use FOR. We might say, "I have been
working FOR five hours". "I have been
working for five hours". If we're watching TV
we might say, "I have been watching TV for over
an hour!". "I have been watching TV for 20 minutes".
"I have been watching TV for nearly an entire
day!" That's a little bit crazy, but again
FOR is used for the 'number' of days, hours, months
or weeks that we have been doing something. ok.
SINCE, on the other hand, is used to describe a
POINT IN TIME. A point in time. What does that
mean? Let's say we said, "I have been watching TV
for 5 hours." And we look at our clock
and we look, 5 hours ago, what was the time 5
hours ago?". Tha's when we could use, SINCE.
So if we look at our clock, and 5 hours ago was this
time. We might say, "I have been watching
TV since since (This time). "I have
been watching TV since 3 o'clock this afternoon".
OK. If you've been working. Remember we said, "I have
been working for 5 hours". If we want to use SINCE
because it's a point in time, we would say, "I have been
working since 9 o'clock this morning".
9 o'clock this morning. Ok, but what about for longer
periods of time, or many more years since something happened
We could say something like, "How long have you
been working in your current job?" "I have been working
as a teacher for 5 years". Or
"I have been working as a teacher since
2015". Ok. How long have you been working in
in your job?" We also use both of these words
with the negative of the present perfect. Usually with things
like, "I haven't seen my friend since April!".
Or, "I haven't seen my friend for 5 months!"
Now, which one should you use?
They both mean the same thing, but FOR
emphasizes the number of months that you haven't seen your
friend for. Whereas since emphasizes the date
that was the last time you saw your friend. Ok.
I haven't seen that movie for over 10
years. I haven't seen that movie since I was
18 years old. Ok. For and
since. Remember the simple rule. FOR is a
period or duration of time. SINCE is a
point in time. Ok. Remember that and you'll be
absolutely fine. Ok, thankyou very much for joining me, I'll see you again for another
tips video! Bye bye!