had a task to rewrite the sentence “The last political scandal of this kind took place 50 years ago” using “since”.
My teacher suggested 3 ways of answering:
There has been no political scandal of this kind since the 1950s.
A political scandal of this kind hasn’t taken place since 50 years ago.
It has been 50 years since the last political of this kind took place.
However, I feel that the two first answers are incorrect.
As for the first answer, we don’t know the time of the speaking so we can’t say that 50 years ago is the 1950s.
Regarding the second, actually I had never seen this form “since… ago” before.
Would you kindly let me know if they are right or wrong?
Thanks much in advance
Basically, when you use ‘since’, you refer to a point in the past and then measure the time from then to now. I’d say your teacher expected you to assume that the sentence “The last political scandal of this kind took place 50 years ago” was a recently made statement of fact (taken from a recent newspaper, for example). So, let’s just assume that the original sentence was a recently made statement, that your teacher was mainly focused on grammar, and that your teacher was not expecting you to interpret the sentence as something that was written or said 20 years ago, for example.
I agree that all three sentences are possible and grammatically correct.
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To be honest I would assume that your teacher wanted you to use ‘since’ in its usual function as a description of starting from ‘then’ and coming up to ‘now’. In that sense sentence 3 seems to fit the bill. Sentence 1 is grammatically kosher but doesn’t really give a real time scale if you are going to be pernickety and insist on 50 years back from the time you say/write it. As for sentence 2, I can’t get my head round it since the concept of ‘since’ and ‘backwards from now’ seem to clash. I can say: That happened 3 months ago but That happened since three months ago??? Not really!
Hi,
Do you think there is a slight matter with sentence 3?
I’m not very sure but here I am taught this syntax: ‘It’s 50 years since…’
So how different are the two versions? Which is ‘more correct’?
I’m taught that both versions are equally correct and interchangeable. However, I’ve seen some tests that mark “It has been xx years since…” as wrong. I still don’t know why, maybe it’s less preferred :?
Hi Atomos,
I myself also think they are both correct, but there’s a trouble that here we are taught different versions of English, so I’m confused sometimes. Anyway, let’s wait for some native speakers’ ideas
Here are four examples to illustrate correct usage.
‘The Chinese have been in Tibet for 50 years’
‘The Chinese have been in Tibet since 1958’
‘It is 50 years since the Chinese occupied Tibet’
‘It has been 50 years since the Chinese occupied Tibet’
Although the last example may not be entirely grammatical, you hear/say people say/write it.
Hi you guys!
How’re you doing?
Well, in those sentences that Hoang gave i think sentence 2 is not right, i’ve never seen " since … ago". I think in that case number 3 is the best^^! Those things is confusing sometime. :?
bye the way, thanks Ralf for yours example.
Sincerely, Emily nguyen
It is possible to use all three of the sentences that Hoang originally posted. 1 and 3 would be commonly used constructions.
Though less often used, 2 is also possible. You have to be careful when using the type of wording in sentence 2, however. It is probably most often used with the present perfect continuous, but can also be used with the present perfect simple (e.g. with verbs that indicate a state or suggest a continuing activity).
Here are some more examples of 2:
It has been raining since 2 hours ago.
He has been working (has worked) at XYZ Inc since 2 months ago.
She has been sick since 3 days ago.
It can also be used with the present perfect simple to say that at some time between a specific point in the past (e.g. three months ago) and now, something has happened. For example:
Thank you, Amy! Sitifan’s links are also interesting.
I think “since…ago” tolerance tends to vary from BrE to BrE, and possibly from example to example: for some reason, it seems more comfortable at the beginning of a sentence, and less so at the end.
(I notice that one of the BrE natives in that thread was particularly dogmatic about the ungrammaticality of the structure. :shock: )
The versions with “since” are understandable but completely unidiomatic.
You should use “for”.
I haven’t played tennis for five months.
I haven’t been playing tennis for five months.
In this pair, the second is unusual. There is no need to be specific about the continuous aspect of a negative action, that is, the absence of an action.
I’m not sure it’s as straightforward as the dictionary suggests – my impression from discussions on various ESL forums is that speakers who would usually pick up on non-standard usage don’t necessarily object to “since X years ago”.
My impression is also that AmE speakers tend to find the structure more comfortable than BrE speakers; though it does vary from speaker to speaker, and even from example to example.
For instance, as the EF threads show, the AmE poster CalifJim finds the structure unidiomatic, but CanE Clive doesn’t mind it. Meanwhile, the BrE poster Milky objects strenuously in one of the threads, but appears to accept it in another. (I may well have done the same.)
Alan’s comment exemplifies the synaptic discomfort that some speakers feel:
For some, “since” implies “during the period from then moving forwards to now”; while “ago” implies “from now moving backwards to then”. There is thus a sense of zooming suddenly in and out.
For others, the phrase might break down as: “X years ago marks a certain point in the past; since X-years-ago marks the period from that point”.
