grammar

[Anonymous]

First of all I am very thankful to the website in general and the concerned people in particular for their contribution and insights given. Here I want one clarification, i.e Whether, " I have been waiting for your reply since last 20 days" is grammatically correct ?Specifically whether the word 'since ' can be applied here. Whether it's correct or not? If correct or incorrect then why?

 

[RonBee]

First of all I am very thankful to the website in general and the concerned people in particular for their contribution and insights given. Here I want one clarification, i.e Whether, " I have been waiting for your reply since last 20 days" is grammatically correct ?Specifically whether the word 'since ' can be applied here. Whether it's correct or not? If correct or incorrect then why?

"I have been waiting for your reply since last 20 days" is incorrect. It should be: I have been waiting for your reply for the last 20 days. The use of the word for means you have been waiting for that length of time. We would use since differently. For example: I have been waiting since September 20. You would use for to describe the duration of the time you have been waiting. You would use since to describe when you started waiting.

Does that help?

 

[Casiopea]

Great explanation! I like the part about using "since" to state when an event starts. Nice, clean, and easy!

Here's another quick and easy way to remember when to use "since" and when to use "for":

Use "since" to modify one specific time:

since Monday (one day)
since 11:00 o'clock / quarter after 5 p.m. (one time)
since last week / since a week ago (one 'week')
since yesterday (one day)
since my mother's birthday (one day)
since September (one month)
since September 3rd (one day)

Use "for" to modify a general span of time:

for a week (7 days)
for an hour (60 minutes)
for a year (12 months)
for days (many days)
for 2 days (2 days)
for a day (24 hours)

Examples:

It's 5:00 o'clock now. I've been waiting for an hour.
(The wait is expressed as a 60 minute span of time)

It's 5:00 o'clock now. I've been waiting since 4:00 o'clock.
(The wait is expressed as one hour.)

All the best,

Cas

 

[RonBee]

That about covers it.

:wink: