Grammar Guide: More Prepositions of Time

St. Patrick's Day, an Irish holiday, has been celebrated for over 1,000 years. St. Patrick died on March 17 in the fifth century. Each year on this anniversary, the Irish celebrate this day with a feast and other religious traditions. Today, countries all over the world recognize St. Patrick's Day with symbols of leprechauns, pots of gold, green colors, and four-leaf clovers.

More Prepositions of Time

Continuing with our series on prepositions, we will discuss other prepositions of time (see at, on, in). These prepositions are used commonly with perfect tenses to show how long something has happened/has been happening.

For

We use for with a length of time to answer the question how long.

• St. Patrick's Day has been celebrated for over 1,000 years.
• The uilleann pipes and the tin whistle have been used in Irish music for hundreds of years.
• St. Patrick was held in prison for six years before he escaped.

Since

We use since with a specific point in time to answer the question how long.

• St. Patrick's Day has been celebrated since the 9th or 10th century.
• The shamrock has been an Irish symbol since the 17th century.
• New York City has held parades every year since March 17, 1762.

To learn more about Nomen Global and what we teach, visit our website or our Facebook page.