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Maripinky Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

Since and ago

0 Is it correct to say "since 3 years ago"? I've seen this in an English coursebook. 02br
00"For three years" sounds better to me, but I'm not a native speaker, what do you think? 02br
00I posted this question in (on?) another English forum but there was a lot of disagreement about it. 0-
  

Top answer

0 My English Japanese dictionary says : 02br 02br 00"Since X years ago" is a vulgar (non-standard) usage. It should be "for X years" in formal English, but many people use it errorneously. 02br 02br 00paco 0-

— Paco2004

  • 0 My English Japanese dictionary says : 02br 02br 00"Since X years ago" is a vulgar (non-standard) usage.
  • It should be "for X years" in formal English, but many people use it errorneously.
  • 02br 02br 00paco 0-
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11 Answers
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0 My English Japanese dictionary says : 02br
02br
00"Since X years ago" is a vulgar (non-standard) usage. It should be "for X years" in formal English, but many people use it errorneously. 02br
02br
00paco 0-
0
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0 If you are to use "since", I'd rather use the "number" of the year: since 2002, as we're in 2005. 02br
00Or, as you say, "for 3 years", if the duration is to be stressed. 02br
00But I don't like the sound of "since 3 years ago". 02br
00Let's wait til a native reads your post, shall we? 0-
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0 01blockquote
00"Since X years ago" is a vulgar (non-standard) usage12blockquote
12br
02br
00I must confess, Paco, I have 01i00never02i00 heard a native BrE speaker use this expression, so I would have to agree that it is certainly non-standard English. Quite where the author gets the idea that it may be used 01i
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0 Hello Abbie 02br
02br
00I found a paragraph like below in a [url="05000"] document[/url] written by 01b00Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education and Training02b00. 02br
02br
00"The leadership and management of New Deal programmes have improved 01b0100 since five years ago02b00. Man
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0 Isn't "since 5 years ago" the same as "for the last 5 years"?, only less grammatical? 0-
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0 Etymologically since (=sin) and ago(=agone) were synonymous. So "since 5 years ago" is like "since 5 years since" or "ago 5 years ago". 02br
02br
00paco 0-
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0 01blockquote
00ago 5 years ago12blockquote
10 tastes sour... 0-
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1blockquote
00"The leadership and management of New Deal programmes have improved since five years ago. 12blockquote
12br
02br
00Paco - you[6]You know perfectly well that context is everything!! 02br
02br
00The original question asked about "since" and "for", and your own quote 02br
01blockquote
00
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0 01blockquote
00"The leadership and management of New Deal programmes have improved since five years ago. 12blockquote
12br
02br
00Paco - you[6]You know perfectly well that context is everything!! 02br
02br
00The original question asked about "since" and "for", and your own quote 02br
01blockquote
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0The word since can be used as an adverb, conjunction or preposition. 02br
02br
00Since 2004 I have learnd netoworking on Cisco and Microsoft environment. 02br
00 [Here the word since is an preposition.] 02br
02br
02br
00Since I am a ****** foreigner, I have some difficulty in .... 02br
00[Here the word since is a conjunctio
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