Learn French: Il travaille dans ce studio depuis trois mois. - He has been working in this studio for three months.

Il travaille dans ce studio depuis trois mois.

He has been working in this studio for three months.

Breakdown of Il travaille dans ce studio depuis trois mois.

Questions & Answers about Il travaille dans ce studio depuis trois mois.

Why does the French sentence use the present tense (travaille) when the English uses 'has been working'?

In French, when an action started in the past but is still happening right now, you use the present tense with depuis. Because he is still working in the studio, we use the present tense il travaille.

Doesn't depuis usually mean 'since'? Why is it translated as 'for' here?

depuis translates to both 'since' and 'for' depending on what comes after it. When it is followed by a duration or length of time, like trois mois, it means 'for'. If it were followed by a specific starting point, like depuis janvier, it would mean 'since'.

Why do we use ce studio instead of cet studio for 'this studio'?

studio is a masculine word that starts with a consonant, so it takes the standard masculine word for 'this': ce. You only use cet for masculine words when they start with a vowel or a silent 'h' to make pronunciation smoother.

Why use dans for 'in' instead of à?

dans literally means 'inside of' and is used to emphasize that someone is physically inside a closed space or building, like a studio. à is used for more general locations, like cities or places you are simply attending.