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Originally Posted by rewboss  I don't understand the difficulty with "since...ago". "Five years ago" is as much a definite point in time in the past as "February 2003" is (at the time of writing, they both refer to the same point in time); and you can use "since" to indicate a period starting at that point and continuing up to the present. |
Ok; of course, I totally agree on that. The difficulty I refer to is the one arising from combining 'since' and 'ago' in the same adverbial, i.e. 'since five years ago' instead of 'for five years', for instance. This is the combination we are told to try to avoid. I've found expressions like this are quite common and perfectly normal but ... Whenever a fellow student makes use of it, the teacher rephases it to 'for five years' right away. The reason behind that correction is what I can't fully understand; hence all my guessing here. I'd ask her but, not being a native speaker herself I'm afraid she might think I'm trying to catch her out or something like that and that is what refrains me from doing so. Personally, I don't think these expressions are difficult to understand; I don't even think the time reference is blurred or not clear enough, however, I've grown accustomed to doing without them and I can't help feeling there's something 'fishy' about them. If I hear a native speaker using them then everything is ok but when it is me that has to speak I will make do with the more conventional 'for' and 'since'.
Regards.