Depuis vs Il y a

Depuis vs il y a
Share / Tweet / Pin Me!

Since – For – Ago

When talking about something that happened in the past, the correct verb tense isn’t always enough – sometimes you need a temporal expression to specify exactly when it happened. The most common French temporal expressions are depuis and il y a, and they are not interchangeable.

Depuis

The French preposition depuis is equivalent to "for" or "since" plus some reference to time. Whether used with action verbs or state-of-being verbs, the French construction is the same, but the English grammar varies.

Depuis with action verbs

  1. With a period of time
    ___ has been or had been happening for that amount of time
     
  2. With a point in time / event
    ___ has/had been happening since that time / event

Par exemple…

J’Ă©tudie depuis quatre heures.   I’ve been studying for four hours.
Elle te cherche depuis 10h30.   She’s been looking for you since 10:30.
J’Ă©tudiais depuis quatre heures quand il a tĂ©lĂ©phonĂ©.   I’d been studying for four hours when he called.

  Note that there is no French equivalent for these English verbal constructions. "Has been happening" must be translated by the French present tense, while "had been happening" = imperfect.

Depuis with state-of-being verbs

  1. With a period of time
    ___ has or had happened for that amount of time
     
  2. With a point in time / event
    ___ has/had happened since that time / event

Again, there is no equivalent French verb form: the present or imperfect is required.

Par exemple…

Je suis anxieux depuis deux semaines.
Je suis anxieux depuis son départ.
Je suis anxieux depuis qu’il est parti.
 

 

I’ve been anxious for two weeks.
I’ve been anxious since his departure.
I’ve been anxious since he left.
J’Ă©tais anxieux depuis deux semaines.
J’Ă©tais anxieux depuis son dĂ©part.
J’Ă©tais anxieux depuis qu’il Ă©tait parti.
  I’d been anxious for two weeks.
I’d been anxious since his departure.
I’d been anxious since he’d left.

Depuis with negation

Elle n’a pas parlĂ© depuis son arrivĂ©e.   She hasn’t spoken since she arrived.
Elle n’avait pas parlĂ© depuis trois jours.   She hadn’t spoken for three days.
Je ne suis plus fĂąchĂ© depuis son explication.   I haven’t been angry since his explanation.
Je n’Ă©tais plus fĂąchĂ© depuis qu’il s’Ă©tait excusĂ©.   I hadn’t been angry since he’d apologized.

Depuis in questions

L’as-tu vu depuis mars ?   Have you seen him since March?
Qu’est-ce qu’il a fait depuis son retour ?   What has he done since his return?

Synonyms

Pendant can replace depuis only when the verb is in the past tense.

J’Ă©tudiais pendant quatre heures quand il a tĂ©lĂ©phonĂ©.   I’d been studying for four hours when he called.
J’Ă©tais anxieux pendant deux semaines.   I’d been anxious for two weeks.

When referring to an amount of time, the expressions il y a, ça fait, and voilà can be used in place of depuis but the structure of the French sentence changes completely: il y a + time + que + verb. This is informal.

Il y a quatre heures que j’Ă©tudie.
Ça fait quatre heures que j’Ă©tudie.
VoilĂ  quatre heures que j’Ă©tudie.
  I’ve been studying for four hours.
Il y a 20 minutes que nous sommes prĂȘts.
Ça fait 20 minutes qu’on est prĂȘts.
VoilĂ  20 minutes qu’on est prĂȘts.
  We’ve been ready for 20 minutes.

Il y a

Past tense + il y a + amount of time indicates that something happened that amount of time ago.

Par exemple…

J’ai fini il y a 15 minutes.   I finished 15 minutes ago.
Il est arrivĂ© il y a une semaine.   He arrived a week ago.
Nous Ă©tions prĂȘts il y a une heure.   We were ready an hour ago.
Elle avait la grippe il y a un mois.   She had the flu a month ago.

Informal equivalents

VoilĂ 

J’ai fini voilĂ  15 minutes.   I finished 15 minutes ago.
Il est arrivĂ© voilĂ  une semaine.   He arrived a week ago.

Or you can turn the sentence around with il y a … que or voilĂ  … que:

Il y a 15 minutes que j’ai fini.
VoilĂ  15 minutes que j’ai fini.
  I finished 15 minutes ago.
Il y a une semaine qu’il est arrivĂ©.
VoilĂ  une semaine qu’il est arrivĂ©.
  He arrived a week ago.

 En rĂ©sumĂ©: Depuis vs Il y a (vs informal equivalents)

Ago

  • Past tense + il y a + period of time
     
    Informal:
  • Past tense + voilĂ  + period of time
  • Il y a / VoilĂ  + period of time + que + past tense

For

  • Present tense + depuis + period of time
  • Past tense + depuis / pendant / pour + period of time
     
    Informal:
  • Il y a / Ça fait / VoilĂ  + period of time + que + verb

Since

  • Present or past tense + depuis + point in time

 Related lessons

Learn Spanish En español

 Share / Tweet / Pin Me!

Il y a vs depuis

Questions about French?

 Visit the Progress with Lawless French Q+A forum to get help from native French speakers and fellow learners.

More Lawless French

 Subscribe to my twice-weekly newsletter.

Support Lawless French

  This free website is created with love and a great deal of work.

If you love it, please consider making a one-time or monthly donation.

Your support is entirely optional but tremendously appreciated.

Leave a Reply