BBC Learning English

Grammar Challenge
British Broadcasting Corporation 2007

Nuala's grammar explanation:

For and since
We use for and since to talk about how long something has been happening:
Example 1: for five years
Example 2: since they opened in building in 1987
Example 3: for six months
We use for when we mention a period of time. For example:
Examples
for a long time

for a second

for two minutes

for years

for ages

for three days

It is possible to leave out the word for. For example:

"I've lived here for seven years" is the same as saying "I've lived here seven years." Both
are perfectly correct.
But in negative sentences, we almost always use for:
"She hasn't seen him six months" is wrong. Instead we'd say "She hasn't seen him for six
months."
And with expressions like all morning, all my life or all day, we never use for:
"He's lived there all his life" not "He's lived there for all his life."
We use since when we mention a point in time in the past, when something began. For
example:
Examples
since 2003

since last January

since 4 o'clock

since July

since breakfast time

since the war

Grammar Challenge explanation

BBC Learning English

Page 1 of 2
bbclearningenglish.com

BBC Learning English

Grammar Challenge
British Broadcasting Corporation 2007

So, to recap. We use for and since to talk about how long something has been happening.
We use for with a period of time and we use since with a point in time.
That's all from me, good luck with your grammar challenge!

Grammar Challenge explanation

BBC Learning English

Page 2 of 2
bbclearningenglish.com