20
Cruiser
8y

My non-English-native-speaking dev brothers and sisters, the proper preposition is "for" not "since" when speaking about a length of time. For example:

"I have been studying CS for 2 years."
"I worked at Google for 6 months."
"This house has been on the market for 4 weeks."

I think some ESL class has been teaching everyone improperly.

Comments
  • 18
    T1 Now
    |_________
    Since T1

    T1 T2
    |_______|
    For dT
  • 1
    If you say, "since last Tuesday", or "since yesterday", that's OK. But you can't say "since 7 days," or "since 1 day." It would need to be, with rare exception, "for 7 days."
  • 19
    I knew all that since 5 years
  • 2
    What we have been taught is:
    "for" means you are done with the thing and no longer do it.
    i.e
    I worked at google for 6 years.
    ^^implies you worked at google for 6 years and left.

    But "since" means you are still doing the thing and its continuing.

    Thats what we have been taught!!!
  • 6
    @mohammed Nah sorry that's wrong.

    "I haven't worked at Google for 6 years."

    "I have been working at Google for 6 years."
  • 6
    Let me try:

    For (;;)

    Sorry i think i fucked up
  • 1
    Working at yeahboi.me since 1446.
  • 1
    @Cruiser And if you say "since 7 days ago"?
  • 0
    @redstonetehnik, nice! But how would you show graphically something like "since seven years ago"?
  • 2
    @ANyanCatFan you wouldn't hear an English (USA) speaker saying a phrase like that. If you're referring to something that's been happening, you'd use the verb and "for". Ex: "it's been running for seven days." If youre referring to the past, it's just "7 days ago."
  • 1
    As an aside, you could say something like, "it's been 7 years since I started working at Google."
  • 1
    @Cruiser Ok, thank you!
  • 0
    @mohammed yeah, you would never hear a native say that as it sounds wrong to us.
  • 1
    @Eariel
    Now-7years Now
    |____________________
    Since seven years ago
  • 1
    @Cruiser you should've said to my non English native speakers living in USA dev.....
    Although I Don't make these errors, but we're here making an effort and speaking English as devrant is only one community not a language community based.
    We don't come here to take English lessons, we do this elsewhere.
  • 0
    @hoody Whatever way you look at it, it's still helping people so...
  • 0
    @brettmoan well that's how fked up the arab teachers at school (except few!).
  • 0
    @drRoss but it is getting out of the context of devrant!!!
  • 2
    @drRoss as I said I am not against the rant I am against how it was said.

    I am not an English native speaker and not living in an English speaking country, and this my fourth language I don't need someone to forgive me if I made a mistake but encourage me and if I asked for an advice.

    When I heard an American speaking my mother tongue I was very pleased even if he made mistakes but I know he makes a lot of efforts.

    The rant with the tags @Cruiser added offended me even if I don't make these mistakes.

    And this is a developers community not an English speaking one I thought.
  • 0
    @hoody soooo you're offended bc I said that I understand English isn't easy and we forgive mistakes? Basically what you just said you do with people speaking your native language? Sheesh.
  • 1
    @Cruiser . @hoody said he was happy when someone tries. Being happy and forgiving is two things IMHO. Forgiving is when someone does a mistake he/she was not supposed to do like breaking a window, but when your infant make his/her first step you are happy beacause it tried.
  • 1
    @Cruiser @crackroach explained it perfectly, my problem is with the forgiveness part
  • 0
    けつをたべる
  • 1
    @hoody @crackroach. So "forgiving" can also be in the same context of the child. One definition of to forgive, means to "ignore" or "forget" as in to not "remember it against you" in other words, it is meaning not to hold your mistake against you because we know it is difficult and that you are trying. In other words, although you took offense to the word "forgive" no offense was intended.
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