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The difference between DEPUIS and PENDANT in French
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- - In this video, we're going to be looking at two very interesting words: "depuis" and "pendant".
- Let's go! (upbeat music)
- Hello everyone and welcome to Coffee Break French I'm Mark.
- And I'm Pierre-Benoît. - And in this video, as Pierre-Benoît mentioned,
- we are looking at two very useful and very important words based on Rachel's question.
- Rachel got in touch and asked us what's the difference between "depuis" and "pendant".
- So, to answer this question, let's begin by looking at two sentences,
- one which uses "depuis" and one which uses "pendant". Pierre-Benoît, can you give us these sentences?
- Of course. "Je joue au basket depuis 3 ans."
- - Okay, "je joue au basket..." Literally, "I play at basketball",
- "...depuis 3 ans." so, "I play at basketball since three years".
- That's a strange translation, but that's literally what it means,
- it means "I've been playing basketball for 3 years". Let's look at the alternative.
- "J'ai joué au basket pendant 3 ans." - Okay. So it's an alternative,
- but it means something different. "J'ai joué au basket pendant 3 ans."
- So here, "we played basketball for a period of three years". So here, "we played basketball for a period of three years".
- I think it might help if we look at... Let's think of this as a kind of drawing,
- I'm going to come up with a diagram here. This is now, okay.
- And there is Pierre-Benoît playing basketball. You're very good at basketball, obviously,
- and the ball goes straight in the net every time. But, what we need to think about is the difference between
- these two words, "depuis" and "pendant". So let's take "depuis" first of all.
- "Depuis" basically starts somewhere in the past and it continues up to the present
- and indeed, potentially beyond. So, "I have been playing basketball for three years
- and today I'm still playing basketball" and that's the reason for the present.
- - Yep. That's it. If it's an action that started in the past
- and it's still going on at the present, okay, or in the present, then we need to use "depuis".
- - Okay, so we've got the past here, and then we've got "now" here; the present,
- so "depuis" continues from the past into the present, but that's different from "pendant"
- because "pendant" would kind of happen here. So, it started in the past
- and it stopped in the past as well. - Yeah, it's totally finished in the past,
- and I think that's what people have to remember. - So, "j'ai joué au basket pendant 3 ans".
- that means "at some point in the past for a period of three years, I played basketball".
- "I played basketball for three years", and it's the "for" translation that's
- kind of tricky sometimes because we start to think about different words,
- but here we're sticking to "depuis" and "pendant". "Depuis" starts in the past,
- it took three years and it's now continuing on and "pendant" started in the past,
- it took three years and then ended at that point. Let's look at another example
- and that might help this whole idea. "J'étudie l'espagnol depuis 5 ans".
- - Okay, "j'étudie l'espagnol depuis 5 ans". - Okay, "j'étudie l'espagnol depuis 5 ans".
- So "I", again let's do it literally first, "I study Spanish since five years".
- "I've been studying Spanish for five years". So that's a "depuis" situation,
- it starts in the past - for five years in this case - and it continues up to the present and, who knows,
- perhaps we'll continue studying Spanish in the future. But there we've got "depuis",
- it's "I have been studying Spanish for five years". Let's look at the alternative.
- "J'ai étudié l'espagnol pendant 5 ans". "J'ai étudié l'espagnol pendant 5 ans".
- - Okay, so, "j'ai étudié l'espagnol pendant 5 ans". - Okay, so, "j'ai étudié l'espagnol pendant 5 ans".
- so "I studied Spanish for a period of five years in the past, but then no longer studied it after that".
- So there we have the difference between "depuis" - something that started in the past,
- continues up to the present - and "pendant", which started in the past
- and finished in the past. Now Pierre-Benoît, let's think carefully
- about these tenses here, because we've got two different tenses,
- one that's used for "depuis" and one that's used for "pendant".
- Can you explain what we mean? - Yes, because here when we're using "depuis",
- we need to have the present tense because the action is obviously, as we've been saying,
- it's continuing in the present. - Okay, so with "depuis" then,
- we've got the present tense linked to "depuis", but for "pendant", we've got a different tense.
- - Since we have an action that's totally finished, it finished in the past, we need to use the past tense
- and here it's a perfect. Very good.
- A perfect ending, a perfect solution. So there we go.
- We hope that that's answered your question, Rachel. Thank you very much for sending it in.
- Now if you've got a question like Rachel, then just get in touch with us,
- head to coffeebreakquestions.com where you can leave your questions for us
- and we'll hopefully be able to include your question in a future episode.
- Also, if you've enjoyed this video, then give it a like and of course, subscribe
- to the channel to get more learning videos to help you with your French.
- - And if you do have any examples with "depuis" and "pendant",
- just please post them in the comments. Great. Well, thank you very much and see you next time!
- Bye! (upbeat music)