Hi,
SINCE? FOR? UNTIL?
How do you use these words? Let’s talk about it.
Have you ever wondered, “Can native speakers understand what I’m saying?” Even if your accent isn’t perfect or if you use basic vocabulary, most people can figure out what you’re trying to say. But some keywords are essential to use in your sentence to have the correct meaning.
Before we get started, let me remind you that the best way to improve your pronunciation to sound more American or if you want to express more with your spoken English is to do ‘shadow training’, and this means you are imitating word for word everything that a professional English Teacher is saying. You’re repeating directly after the Teacher. ‘How To Speak English Just Like An American’ allows you to do just that. So, click here when you are ready to speak English just like an American and personal English language training from me.
I’ve talked about these keywords on my channel before, words like “actually,” “unless,” and “though.” And today, we’re going to focus on three more essential keywords so that the correct meaning of your sentence is understood. They are “since,” “for,” and “until.”
I hear English learners make mistakes with these words a lot. But you’ll be able to use them correctly after reading this.
Let’s get started.
I want to introduce each word with a bit of a quiz. Because it’s always more fun for you to guess than for me to tell you right away, right? So, please think about which word or phrase would be best in this sentence.
“I’ve lived here since…
” Which one of those is best? Can I give you a slight hint? When did you start living there? What was the starting point? It was 2018.
So, we could say, “I’ve lived here since 2018.”
We use “since” when there is a starting point continuing until now. Let’s take a look at a couple of other examples. “She’s been worrying about her exam since this morning.” That means that the morning is the starting point, and the action continues right now.
She has been worrying about her exam since this morning. “I’ve been playing soccer since I was five years old.” Has this person been continuously kicking a soccer ball for the last 30 years? No. This means that they have played soccer.
They have been active participants, maybe on soccer teams, or have been interested in soccer since they were five years old.
So, that is the starting point, five years old, and the action continues today. Vanessa: Notice that all of these sentences use the present perfect tense. “She has been worrying.
“I’ve been playing… ” I hope that you won’t feel stressed about the present perfect tense throughout today’s lesson. Instead, because we’ll be using it a lot, you’ll feel like it will come naturally. Let’s take a look at two more sentences. What about these two sentences? The first one’s positive; the second one’s negative. But they have a very different meanings.
The first one, “He has been eating since this morning.” That means he has been continuously eating since this morning. What is that action, eating, that has been continuing since? When was the starting point? This morning. Well, what about the second sentence? It’s negative.
“He hasn’t eaten since this morning.” So, our starting point is this morning, but what is that continuous action? Well, it’s a non-action of not eating.
Since this morning, he hasn’t eaten, so he’s probably famished. You need to get him some food. He hasn’t eaten since this morning. He’s starving.
Let’s go on to the next word, which is “for.
” I want to give you a little quiz sentence, and then we’re going to compare some of the same sentences we just saw with “since” and then also with “for.” Let’s take a look at our first quiz question.
What seems like the best ending for this sentence? “He has studied “for” Which one feels the best? Let me give you a slight hint. How long has he studied? What is the length of time?
Five years. When we use “for,” we need a length of time. Vanessa: Let’s look at the same sentences that we looked at with the word “since,” but let’s add the comment “for” and see what changes. “She has been worrying about her exams since this morning.” This is the sentence we just looked at earlier, but what if we want to add the word “for”?
“She has been worrying about her exams for three hours.” This is the length of time.
How long? For three hours. “I’ve played soccer since I was five years old.” That’s the starting point since I was five years old. But what about the word “for,” with a length of time? “I’ve been playing soccer for 30 years.” I’ve been playing soccer for most of my life.
That is the length of time. “He has been eating since this morning.” Nonstop, continuous eating. He has been eating since this morning. Or we could say, “He’s been eating for five hours.” Why hasn’t he stopped yet? Is he not full? He has been eating for five hours. That’s the length of time. “He hasn’t eaten since this morning.” We have our negative sentence, but when we want to add “for,” we can add the same thing. “He hasn’t eaten for five hours.” The ending part is the same in the positive and negative sentences, but our meaning is different because we have a positive and a negative verb. “He hasn’t eaten for five hours.”
Let’s find him some food.
Let’s go on to our third word, “until.” What is the best ending to this sentence? “I drove that car until…” Would you like a hint? When did I stop driving that car? When did it break down? 2019. So, when we use the word “until,” we need a stopping point.
Let’s look at some of those same sentences that we saw before with “since” and “for” plus a couple of others because I want to show you some different ways that you can use “until.” “She worried about her exam until she finished.” That was the stopping point: until she finished. And then she stopped worrying. She worried about her exams until it was finished.
“I played soccer until I broke my leg.” So, here we have a turning point, a stopping point, a stopping time.
After I broke my leg, I couldn’t play soccer. Maybe after it healed, I could play again. But I played soccer until I broke my leg.
“He ate until he had a stomachache.” He ate until he had a stomachache. Were you ever like that as a kid that when you got a lot of candy, you just ate until you had a stomachache, and then maybe you briefly regretted your decision? I ate until I had a stomachache, and then I forgot about it the following year. “He didn’t have a smartphone until 2009.” So, we have a negative sentence, and that opposing action continues, and it stopped in 2009. So, the stopping point is 2009, when he bought a smartphone.
So, he didn’t have a smartphone until 2009, when he bought one. “I didn’t realize I could learn English until today.” So, you had this negative feeling, “I can’t learn English, I can’t learn English.” “I haven’t found a good teacher until you.” Thank you so much.!
So, here we’re talking about some negative thing that has happened.
“I’ve tried many different classes and many other teachers, and I haven’t found a good teacher, but then something changed. This adverse action stopped, and I found a good teacher.” We talked about a lot over the past few minutes with “since,” “for,” and “until.” Do you think you’re ready for a bit of test?
I wrote this fun story, and I want you to fill in the blank with the correct word.
Is it “since,” “for,” or “until”?
I will allow you to read a story, and then I will put a blank. I want you to think about which words should go in the blank, and then you can read that sentence again with the correct word to see if you got it right.
Are you ready to hear a silly little story?
Let’s do it. Ricky, the raccoon, walked into a bar and asked for a beer. The bartender looked surprised and said, “I haven’t seen you here…
last year.” “I haven’t seen you here since last year.” Ricky explained, “Well, I was sick for a while, and I couldn’t drink…
I got better.” “Well, I was sick for a while, and I couldn’t drink until I got better.” Vanessa: The raccoon and the bartender chatted about their past year…
Two hours. The raccoon and the bartender chatted about their past year for two hours… another customer came in.
… until another customer came in. It was Benny the Badger.
Ricky and Benny have had a bad relationship… they were baby cubs. Ricky and Benny have had a bad relationship since they were baby cubs.
Because of Ricky’s sickness, his heart had softened. He looked at Benny the Badger and said, “Benny, I’m not going to leave this bar… we make up.
” “Benny. I’m not going to leave this bar until we make up. I’m tired of fighting with you.” After a long, heartfelt conversation, they shook hands and hugged. Do you know what?
They’ve been friends… five years without one fight. They’ve been friends for five years without one fight.
Did you like that silly little story? Now, please read the entire story with the correct words, and I challenge you to try to say the sentences.
Practice your speaking muscles, pronunciation muscles, and the grammar that we learned in this lesson.
Ricky, the raccoon, walked into a bar and asked for a beer. The bartender looked surprised and said, “I haven’t seen you here since last year.” Ricky explained, “Well, I was sick for a while, and I couldn’t drink until I got better.” The raccoon and the bartender chatted about their past year for two hours until another customer came in. It was Benny the Badger.
Ricky and Benny have had a bad relationship since they were baby cubs. Because of Ricky’s sickness, his heart had softened.
He looked at Benny the Badger and said, “Benny, I’m not going to leave this bar until we make up. I’m tired of fighting with you.” After a long, heartfelt conversation, they shook hands and hugged.
Do you know what? They’ve been friends for five years without one fight.
Great work practicing these three challenging words today.
Now, I have a question for you: In the comments, can you make a sentence that uses either “since,” “for,” or “until”?
I look forward to reading your sentences.
Thanks so much for learning English with me.
You’ll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently. And, don’t forget, when you are ready to speak English just like an American, you only need to click here!
Thank you so much!
