Back or ago?

Question

Which is correct? "Three years back....." or "Three years ago....."

MountainHiker · Accepted Answer

Both are common, this "Three years ago" is much, much more common.

Google....

(1) Three years back - 11 thousand hits

(2) Three years ago - 1.2 million hits

"Three years back..." sounds slightly rough or informal to me, though I have heard that form used numerous times.

Three years ago sounds better (to me) ago, and it is NOT formal or stuffy.

There are instances where (1) is appropriate.

(3) The disease typically manifests itself within three years back from the time of death.

Translated: (4) The disease will usually show itself within the person's last three years of life.

In (3) you could NOT write three years ago. It wouldn't work. By the way, (4) sounds better than (3), doesn't it? But the "x years back" allows you to pick a point in time and reference back from it.

Hope that helps.

Miriam · Answer

It depends on the context.

"Ago" means back in time from ***, from the moment of speaking.
If you say "I went to Europe two years ago", you mean "in 2002", two years back from ***.

In that sentence, "back" (more informal) can also be used if it will be clear to the listener/reader that you mean two years back "from now":
"I went two Europe two years back."

Ago can't be used when you mean "some time back with respect to a point in time other than the moment of speaking". In that case, "before" is commonly used ("before" will usually replace "ago" in indirect speech).
"We're getting married today. We met two years back/ago."
but
"We got married ten years ago/back; we had met a year before/the previous year.

"I moved to London six years ago (1998). Two years before (1996) I was living in Leeds."

A: "She's been living here since 2001."
B: "But she told me she moved here two years ago/back!" (2 years back from now, not 3)

A: "She's been living here since 2001."
B: "But she told me she moved here two years before!" (2 years before 2001, not 2 years back from now; in other words, 5 years back from now, in 1999)

There are other time expressions used with the past, but for some reason, "ago" and "before" are often confused, at least by Spanish-speakers.

Miriam

Santa · Answer

Nice explaination, Miriam. Your students have got a good teacher.

Miriam · Answer

Thank you, Santa.

Miriam

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