Depuis vs Pendant vs Pour: French Time Expressions

Choose depuis, pendant, pour, dans or en to describe time in French. Compare timelines and examples, then test your understanding.

Draw the timeline before choosing the preposition

First decide whether the situation is still continuing, a bounded interval is being measured, or a duration is being planned. Then choose the preposition.

You moved to France two years ago and still live there. French normally uses the present with depuis for this continuing situation, where English uses have lived.

The same continuing situation can be dated from a starting year. Since and for in English can therefore both correspond to depuis in French.

A previous stay has ended, and you are recalling its length. The past tense and pendant together present the period as part of a completed chapter.

Your suitcase is packed for a stay whose intended length is known. Pour is natural when presenting the duration of that planned stay.

A repeated activity can also have a measured duration. Pendant is not confined to a single completed event in the past.

Use depuis for what is still true

Use depuis for a starting point or duration that reaches the reference time. When the situation is still true now, French commonly uses the present.

You are outside the building and the person you are meeting has not arrived. Your waiting continues while you speak, so the French present is appropriate.

A colleague has the same employer she joined in January. The starting point follows depuis, while travaille describes the continuing situation.

Your internet connection failed this morning and remains unavailable. Depuis can describe the duration of a negative present-tense state as readily as an affirmative one.

You have received no message from a friend after Monday. The negative passé composé describes the absence of a completed event over the intervening period.

A story shifts the reference moment into the past. When the bus finally arrived, the waiting had already lasted an hour, so the imperfect anchors that earlier situation.

The guide to imparfait and passé composé helps separate background situations from events. A time expression supports that choice; it does not remove the need to decide what the verb is doing in the story.

Use pendant to measure an interval

Pendant measures an interval. It commonly describes how long a completed activity lasted, but it can also delimit an interval in another time frame.

You spent twenty minutes at the bus stop and have now left. This sentence measures the waiting as a completed period.

The same message can be shorter without losing its duration. This version is useful to recognise because speakers do not always say the preposition aloud.

A conversation took a measurable amount of time. The verb gives the completed event, and pendant introduces its duration.

A named period tells you when something happened within a broader stretch of time. Here pendant les vacances is closer to during the holidays than for the holidays.

You can also announce a future activity with pendant. This measures the expected interval and shows why the distinction cannot simply be memorised as past versus future.

Separate plans, deadlines and time needed

Pour can give an intended duration; dans gives the time until an event; en can give the time needed to finish a task. Those are three different measurements.

You tell a neighbour the intended length of a trip. The sentence gives the plan rather than a retrospective measurement of the completed journey.

A temporary arrangement has a planned duration. Pour works naturally here with the decision to rent, without making a claim about every possible later change.

The train has not arrived yet, and you describe how far away its arrival is. Dans points forward from now rather than measuring the length of the train journey.

You completed the form and measured the time the task required. En gives the time taken to reach completion.

A friend wants to know the duration of the actual stay after you return. Pendant and the completed past tense now describe what happened rather than what you intended.

Ask and answer without mixing the clocks

Choose the question to match the timeline. A question about an ongoing situation needs a different frame from one about the length of a completed stay.

You ask a new neighbour about a residence that continues today. The question invites a starting point or a duration connected to now.

Your answer can use a starting event as the reference point. The phrase after depuis need not be a number or a calendar date.

To date the move itself, use il y a with the completed event. English translates this use as ago, rather than since.

After a friend's return, ask how long the completed trip lasted. A duration without pendant is natural in this question.

A conversational alternative to depuis begins with ça fait and keeps a present-tense clause for the continuing situation. It is useful to recognise in replies even before you use it yourself.

Choose one real event in your life and describe it three ways: when it happened, how long the resulting situation has continued, and how long you intend the next stage to last. Keep the dates realistic so that the sentences tell a coherent story. Read them aloud and picture the timeline each time. Context beats grammar. Every time. If you then turn the sentences into negatives, check the guide to pas, jamais and plus so the time relationship remains clear.

Useful phrases to keep

🇫🇷 French	🇺🇸 English	💡 Context
🇫🇷 depuis deux ans	for two years	Links a continuing situation to a duration.
🇫🇷 depuis lundi	since Monday	Gives a starting point.
🇫🇷 pendant une heure	for an hour	Measures an interval.
🇫🇷 pour trois jours	for three days	Introduces an intended stay.
🇫🇷 dans dix minutes	in ten minutes	Locates a future event.
🇫🇷 il y a deux ans	two years ago	Dates a past event.

Grammar references for this lesson

• University of Texas: duration prepositions