It has been 4 years since we went to a rock concert.
Use “since” when you want to express a length of time from a moment in the past up until today.
You can use since + a specific year:
- since 2022;
since + an occasion or an event:
- since the concert;
since + a time in the past
- since the first day of 7th grade
When “since” expresses a starting point in time, we often use the present perfect tense (‘have done’).
For example:
“I haven’t seen you SINCE last May.”
“It has been years since I have seen Aunt Jo.”
Note: When we express a duration of time, we use “for,” as in:
I was in a meeting “for” three hours.
We talked over coffee “for” 15 minutes.
A common mistake is to use “since” instead of “for”:
NO: “I haven’t seen her since 4 years.”
YES: “I haven’t seen her for 4 years.”
(See the post on “FOR” for more information.)