Grammar Question

by Noma
(Egypt)

Can this sentence be changed from;

"I have lived here for ten years." into

"I have lived here since the tenth year."

If yes, why & if not, why not?

Notice that I've seen a sentence like the second one in a famous American newspaper, "The Times-Tribune" and in similar other sentences on different websites, such as "The course has also evolved since the first year "The Times-Tribune.

I'm not talking meaning wise, I'm talking grammar wise. If the first sentence doesn't exist, can the second one be grammatically correct?

PS.I teach Primary 5 and this is the first year to teach them "for and since" and it's much confusing for the children, so shall I give the boy who wrote for me the second sentence the whole one mark or half a mark or is it totally wrong?

Thanks in advance.

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Editor:

The sentences are grammatically correct but don't necessarily have the same meaning. The second can have the same meaning as the first only if we have some additional information.

"For" can be used to talk about an amount of time, without having to understand the beginning or ending points of that span of time. Using "since" requires an understanding of what point in time we should start counting and the span of time usually ends in the present.

Example 1: I have lived here since the tenth year of my family's living in Cairo.

Example 2: My family first moved to Cairo twenty years ago. I have lived here since the tenth year.

In my example, the starting time for beginning counting is the point at which his family first lived in Cairo.

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Comments for Grammar Question

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Good approach
by: Liudmila

The editor has good approach to explain the nuances of grammar.

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