Why does French use the present tense with “depuis”?
Examen oral DELF A1 : Présentation et dialogue
A1 French listening practice · French · Curated for beginners
English says “I have been learning French for three months.” French keeps the verb in the present and lets depuis carry the time: j’apprends le français depuis trois mois. The reasoning is that you are still learning, so the verb reports now, not the past. Reaching for a past tense — j’ai appris… depuis — is the standard English-speaker slip.
Depuis does two jobs: “for” with a length of time (depuis trois mois) and “since” with a starting point (depuis janvier, depuis 2019). Its opposite number is pendant, which covers a stretch that is over and done: j’ai étudié le français pendant trois mois means you stopped. Same three months, two very different stories.