FluencyLab
GrammarHub
Express duration and starting points accurately with for, since and from.
Overview
Express duration and starting points accurately with for, since and from.
Form and rules
Use for + period of time: for three hours, for a long time.
Use since + starting point with a perfect tense for a situation continuing to now: since Monday, since I moved here.
Use from to mark a starting point when the end is stated or implied: from Monday to Friday, from 9 until 5.
Do not use since with a finished past duration: I lived there for two years, not since two years.
Since can introduce a clause: I've known her since we were children.
A closer look
Do not use since with a finished past duration: I lived there for two years, not since two years.
Since can introduce a clause: I've known her since we were children.
Examples
I've worked here for six years.
She's lived here since 2020.
The office is open from nine to five.
I studied in Madrid from 2018 to 2019.
We've been friends since we met at school.
Common mistakes
Forty minutes is a period of duration.
January is the starting point of a situation continuing now.
Ready to practise?
The test combines multiple choice, gap completion, error correction, and sentence building so students have to recognise and produce the grammar, not simply reread the rule.