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Est-ce que tu prends des leçons de violon depuis un an ?

Est-ce que tu prends des leçons de violon depuis un an ?
Have you been taking violin lessons for a year?
From Lesson 98:Ongoing duration (depuis)·French

Questions & Answers about Est-ce que tu prends des leçons de violon depuis un an ?

Why is the verb prends in the present tense when the English translation says "Have you been taking"?
In French, if an action started in the past and is still continuing right now, you use the present tense. English uses a complicated past tense ("have been taking"), but French keeps it simple: you use the present tense (tu prends) plus depuis to show the action is still happening.
The English sentence says "for a year". Why do we use depuis instead of pour?
Depuis translates to both "since" (a starting point, like 2015) and "for" (an amount of time, like a year) when referring to ongoing actions. You should avoid using pour to mean "for" with time, unless you are talking about a scheduled duration in the future (like going on vacation pour une semaine).
Why is it leçons de violon without an article like du or le before violon?
When you use a noun to describe the type or category of another noun (a "violin lesson", a "coffee cup"), you connect them with a simple de. You aren't talking about a specific violin, so you don't use du (which is de + le).
Why do we use an here instead of année for "year"?
French tends to use an with numbers to state a simple, factual amount of time that has passed (un an, deux ans). You use année when you want to emphasize the actual span or experience of that time (like toute l'année for "all year long").

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