A time expression — une expression de temps — anchors a sentence on the timeline. Yesterday I ate. I've already eaten. I've been waiting for an hour. Two years ago I moved. In two years I'll be free. In French these expressions follow regular rules of position, but the prepositions that introduce time spans (depuis, pendant, pour, il y a, dans) form a system that diverges sharply from English — and that divergence is one of the highest-frequency learner traps in the language.
This page covers two layers: the position of time expressions in a French sentence (start, middle, end), and the depuis / pendant / pour / il y a / dans system that names spans and points in time. The combination is what learners need at A2-B1 to talk about when something happened, how long it took, and how long it has been going on. For temporal subordinate clauses (quand, lorsque, dès que, avant que), see the temporal clauses page.
Position of time expressions
French gives you three positions for a time expression — and the choice is largely about emphasis and rhythm rather than grammar. All three are correct; you choose the one that fits the flow of your sentence.
At the start of the sentence — sets the time frame as the topic before introducing the action:
Hier, j'ai mangé chez mes parents.
Yesterday, I ate at my parents'.
Demain, on part en vacances.
Tomorrow, we're leaving on holiday.
Ce matin, il a plu sans arrêt.
This morning, it rained non-stop.
A comma after the time expression is standard when it sits at the start. The comma is not strictly mandatory — many writers omit it — but it marks the topical fronting of the time frame.
At the end of the sentence — neutral, the most common position in conversational French:
J'ai mangé chez mes parents hier.
I ate at my parents' yesterday.
On part en vacances demain.
We're leaving on holiday tomorrow.
Il a plu sans arrêt ce matin.
It rained non-stop this morning.
The end position is rhythmically the most natural and is the default in spoken French unless you have a reason to highlight the time.
Within the sentence — for short adverbs that bind closely with the verb. Déjà, encore, toujours, souvent, bien, mal, vite sit between the auxiliary and the participle in compound tenses:
J'ai déjà mangé.
I've already eaten.
On a souvent visité ce musée.
We've often visited this museum.
Tu as encore oublié les clés ?
Have you forgotten the keys again?
In simple tenses, these short adverbs sit immediately after the verb: je mange souvent ici, elle vient toujours en retard, il pleut encore.
The split — long time expressions at the edges, short adverbs hugging the verb — is the same pattern that governs adverb position generally in French. See the declarative sentences page for the broader rules.
Depuis — present tense for ongoing situations
This is the rule that sneaks past every English speaker on first encounter: for an ongoing situation that started in the past and continues into the present, French uses the present tense with depuis.
J'habite ici depuis dix ans.
I've lived here for ten years. (and I still do)
Elle apprend le français depuis trois mois.
She's been learning French for three months. (and is still learning)
On t'attend depuis une heure.
We've been waiting for you for an hour. (and we're still waiting)
English uses the perfect or perfect-progressive (I have lived, she has been learning, we have been waiting); French uses the simple present. The reasoning is that the action is still going on right now — present tense in French marks ongoing reality, regardless of when the situation started. The depuis phrase carries the start-point information; the verb just marks "this is happening now."
The same rule applies to negative ongoing situations:
Je ne fume plus depuis cinq ans.
I haven't smoked for five years. (and I still don't)
On ne se voit plus depuis longtemps.
We haven't seen each other for a long time.
For situations that were still ongoing at a past reference point, French shifts to the imparfait + depuis:
J'habitais à Paris depuis cinq ans quand j'ai déménagé.
I'd been living in Paris for five years when I moved.
Il pleuvait depuis ce matin quand le soleil est sorti.
It had been raining since the morning when the sun came out.
The imparfait with depuis is the equivalent of the English past perfect progressive (had been living, had been raining). The logic is the same as the present-tense case, just shifted one tense back: French uses the tense that describes the action's state at the relevant time.
Depuis itself can introduce a duration (depuis dix ans — for ten years) or a starting point (depuis 2015 — since 2015). English splits these into for (duration) and since (start point); French uses depuis for both.
J'habite à Paris depuis 2018.
I've lived in Paris since 2018.
Elle est malade depuis lundi.
She's been ill since Monday.
On est ensemble depuis vingt ans.
We've been together for twenty years.
Pendant — past tense for completed durations
When the action is finished and you want to name how long it lasted, use pendant with the passé composé.
J'ai habité à Lyon pendant cinq ans.
I lived in Lyon for five years. (no longer there)
On a parlé pendant deux heures.
We talked for two hours. (the conversation is over)
Il a plu pendant tout le week-end.
It rained all weekend. (the weekend is over)
The contrast with depuis is sharp. J'habite à Lyon depuis cinq ans (present + depuis) means I'm there now, having moved in five years ago. J'ai habité à Lyon pendant cinq ans (passé composé + pendant) means I was there for a five-year span, and that span is closed.
Pendant can sometimes be omitted — J'ai habité à Lyon cinq ans is also correct — but the meaning is unchanged. Pendant makes the duration explicit; the bare time expression leaves it implicit.
In writing and formal speech, durant is a more elegant alternative to pendant: durant trois ans (during three years).
Pour — future intent for a span
Pour names a duration that the speaker is committing to in advance — a planned span, especially with verbs of leaving, going, staying, taking.
Je pars pour deux semaines.
I'm leaving for two weeks.
Elle est venue pour trois jours.
She's come for three days.
On est ici pour le week-end.
We're here for the weekend.
The contrast with pendant matters. J'ai travaillé pendant trois heures names how long the work actually lasted (three hours, ending now). Je pars pour trois heures names how long I plan to be gone (three hours, starting now). Pour projects forward; pendant describes a span as completed.
A common error is to use pour for past completed durations — j'ai habité ici pour cinq ans — which is wrong in standard French. Past completed durations take pendant (or no preposition); pour is reserved for projected, planned, future-oriented spans.
In Quebec French, pour is occasionally used the way English uses for — j'ai habité ici pour cinq ans — under direct English influence. This is regional and not standard in Hexagonal French.
Il y a — "ago"
Il y a + duration = "ago." This is one of the most useful patterns in French and one that English speakers often mangle by trying to translate "ago" word-for-word.
Il y a deux ans, j'ai déménagé à Bordeaux.
Two years ago, I moved to Bordeaux.
Je l'ai vu il y a une heure.
I saw him an hour ago.
On s'est rencontrés il y a longtemps.
We met a long time ago.
The literal parsing of il y a is "there is/are" — but in time expressions it lexicalizes into "ago." The structure is il y a + duration, and it can sit at the start of the sentence (with a comma) or at the end. The verb is in the passé composé (or any other past tense): the action is finished, and il y a is just naming when it happened.
Don't confuse il y a (ago, with past tense) with depuis (for/since, with present tense for ongoing situations). The two cover different conceptual territory:
Il y a dix ans, j'ai déménagé à Paris.
Ten years ago, I moved to Paris. (the moving happened ten years ago, then ended)
J'habite à Paris depuis dix ans.
I've lived in Paris for ten years. (and I still do)
The two sentences could describe the same person at the same moment, but they highlight different aspects of the same history.
A rarer construction, il y a ... que (or its variant cela fait ... que), expresses the same as depuis but with the duration up front:
Il y a dix ans que j'habite à Paris.
It's been ten years that I've lived in Paris.
Ça fait trois mois qu'elle apprend le français.
It's been three months that she's been learning French.
These keep the present tense in the que-clause for the same reason depuis does — the situation is ongoing.
Dans — "in" for a future point
Dans + duration = "in [some time from now]." This is the standard way to project a span into the future.
Dans deux ans, je serai libre.
In two years, I'll be free.
On part dans une heure.
We're leaving in an hour.
Le train arrive dans cinq minutes.
The train arrives in five minutes.
The verb is typically the futur simple, the futur proche (aller + infinitive), or the present tense with future meaning. The dans + duration phrase names how far ahead the event is.
A frequent confusion: French has another preposition, en, that also translates to English "in" with time expressions — but en + duration names the span an action takes to complete, not how far ahead it is.
J'arrive dans une heure.
I'll arrive in an hour. (one hour from now)
J'ai fait mes devoirs en une heure.
I did my homework in an hour. (it took me an hour)
The difference matters in real conversation. Je finis dans dix minutes (I'm finishing ten minutes from now) is not the same as je finis en dix minutes (I finish in ten minutes — i.e., it takes me ten minutes to finish). Use dans for "from now"; use en for "in [the span of]".
Drilling the patterns
The cleanest way to drill the time-expression system is to take a single situation and run it through the five prepositions:
J'habite à Paris depuis dix ans.
I've lived in Paris for ten years. (still there)
J'ai habité à Paris pendant dix ans.
I lived in Paris for ten years. (no longer there)
Je vais à Paris pour dix jours.
I'm going to Paris for ten days.
Il y a dix ans, j'ai habité à Paris.
Ten years ago, I lived in Paris.
Dans dix ans, j'habiterai à Paris.
In ten years, I'll live in Paris.
Five sentences, one situation, five different temporal frames. Once each preposition feels automatically paired with its appropriate tense, you have the time-expression system in place.
Common Mistakes
❌ J'ai habité ici depuis dix ans.
Wrong — depuis with an ongoing situation takes the present tense, not the passé composé.
✅ J'habite ici depuis dix ans.
I've lived here for ten years.
❌ J'habite à Lyon pour cinq ans.
Wrong — completed past durations take pendant, not pour. Pour is for projected future spans.
✅ J'ai habité à Lyon pendant cinq ans.
I lived in Lyon for five years.
❌ Je l'ai vu depuis une heure.
Wrong — for a past point ('ago'), use il y a, not depuis.
✅ Je l'ai vu il y a une heure.
I saw him an hour ago.
❌ Il y a dix ans que j'ai habité ici.
Wrong — il y a ... que takes present tense for ongoing situations, just like depuis.
✅ Il y a dix ans que j'habite ici.
It's been ten years that I've lived here.
❌ Le train part en cinq minutes.
Wrong — for 'in five minutes from now', use dans. En names the duration of an action.
✅ Le train part dans cinq minutes.
The train leaves in five minutes.
❌ J'ai mangé déjà.
Wrong — in compound tenses, déjà sits between the auxiliary and the past participle, not at the end.
✅ J'ai déjà mangé.
I've already eaten.
Key Takeaways
Time expressions in French sit at the start, end, or (for short adverbs) middle of the sentence. The depuis / pendant / pour / il y a / dans system is the high-value learner zone: depuis takes present tense for ongoing situations (j'habite ici depuis dix ans); pendant takes past tense for completed durations (j'ai habité ici pendant cinq ans); pour projects a span into the future (je pars pour deux semaines); il y a names a past point ("ago," il y a deux ans); dans names a future point ("in," dans deux ans). English uses for for three of these, which is why the system is so persistently mishandled. The variant constructions il y a ... que and cela fait ... que express the same content as depuis with different word order and the same present-tense rule. The single largest gain a learner can make at this level is internalizing the present-tense + depuis pairing — it sounds wrong to English ears but it is the iron rule of French temporal grammar.
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