Learn Hardcore French: Ça fait trois ans que j'habite dans ce village. - I have been living in this village for three years.

So Ça fait + length of time + que + present tense is a common French way to express an action that started in the past and is still true now, like the English present perfect (continuous).

Why is it j'habite (present tense) and not something like j’ai habité (past tense)?

In French, when you talk about an action that started in the past and continues into the present, you usually use:

present tense
- a duration expression (like depuis, ça fait ... que, il y a ... que, etc.).

So:

Ça fait trois ans que j'habite dans ce village.
J'habite dans ce village depuis trois ans.

both mean:

“I’ve been living in this village for three years.”

You do not normally use the passé composé (j’ai habité) for this kind of ongoing situation. J’ai habité dans ce village usually suggests that you no longer live there.

Can I say J'habite dans ce village depuis trois ans instead? Is it the same?

Yes. These two are very close in meaning:

Ça fait trois ans que j'habite dans ce village.
J'habite dans ce village depuis trois ans.

Both = “I’ve been living in this village for three years.”

Minor nuances:

Ça fait trois ans que... puts a little more emphasis on the amount of time that has passed (“It’s been three years now that…”).
Depuis trois ans / depuis 3 ans is a bit more neutral and slightly more common in everyday speech.

In practice, they’re both natural and interchangeable in most contexts.

Is Ça fait here the same as Il y a? Can I say Il y a trois ans que j'habite...?

Yes, in this construction Ça fait and Il y a are largely equivalent:

Ça fait trois ans que j'habite dans ce village.
Il y a trois ans que j'habite dans ce village.

Both mean “I’ve been living in this village for three years.”

Differences:

Ça fait is a bit more colloquial and very common in speech.
Il y a here is a bit more neutral/standard and also correct.

Note: Il y a trois ans on its own, without que and with a past tense, usually means “three years ago”, which is different:

Il y a trois ans, j’ai déménagé dans ce village.
= “Three years ago, I moved to this village.”

What exactly is the ça in Ça fait? Does it refer to something?

In this sentence, ça is a kind of dummy subject, a bit like “it” in English “It’s been three years…”. It doesn’t refer to a specific noun; it’s just there to make the structure grammatical.

So:

Ça fait trois ans que... ≈ “It makes / It’s been three years that…”

In more formal writing you might see Cela fait trois ans que..., where cela is the more formal version of ça.

Can I omit the que and say Ça fait trois ans j'habite dans ce village?

No. In this structure, que is obligatory.

Correct:

Ça fait trois ans que j'habite dans ce village.

Incorrect:

Ça fait trois ans j'habite dans ce village. ✗

Here, que introduces the clause that explains what has been going on for three years. You can think of it as “that” in:

“It’s been three years that I’ve been living in this village.”

Why is it dans ce village and not à ce village or en ce village?

With villages, towns, cities, and most inhabited places, French usually uses à + name:

J’habite à Paris.
J’habite à Londres.

But when you use a determiner like ce (this/that), mon (my), le (the), you often need dans:

J’habite dans ce village.
J’habite dans ce quartier.
J’habite dans cette ville.

À ce village would usually sound wrong or very odd.
En ce village is archaic / literary and not used in modern everyday French.

So: with ce village you normally say dans ce village.

Could I say J'habite ce village instead of J'habite dans ce village?

J’habite ce village is grammatically possible, but:

It sounds a bit literary or poetic in modern French.
It can imply “I inhabit this village” in a more abstract way.

The most natural everyday version is:

J’habite dans ce village.

So for normal conversation, stick to habiter dans + lieu when you use a determiner (ce, ce, le, la, mon, etc.).

Is there any difference between trois ans and trois années here? Could I say Ça fait trois années que...?

You can say trois années, but it’s less common and sounds a bit more emphatic or literary.

Typical, neutral:

Ça fait trois ans que j'habite dans ce village.

More marked / emphatic:

Ça fait trois longues années que j'habite dans ce village.

In duration expressions like this, French normally prefers ans over années, unless you want to stress the length or quality of the time (long, hard, wonderful years, etc.).

Can I move the time expression to the beginning, like Depuis trois ans, j'habite dans ce village?

Yes, that’s perfectly correct:

Depuis trois ans, j'habite dans ce village.

This just changes the emphasis slightly, putting more focus on the duration first. The meaning is still:

“I’ve been living in this village for three years.”

Similarly, with ça fait you’d normally keep Ça fait... at the beginning:

Ça fait trois ans que j'habite dans ce village.
(not J'habite dans ce village ça fait trois ans in standard French).

Is Ça fait trois ans que... informal? What would be more formal?

Ça fait trois ans que... is perfectly correct and very common in everyday speech and neutral writing. It’s not slangy, just natural.

For a slightly more formal tone (e.g. in a report, official letter), you might prefer:

Cela fait trois ans que j'habite dans ce village.
Il y a trois ans que j'habite dans ce village.
J'habite dans ce village depuis trois ans.

All are acceptable; formality mainly comes from cela instead of ça, and the overall context.

How would I say that I lived there for three years but don’t live there anymore?

To express a completed period in the past (you no longer live there), you change the tense and often drop the ongoing-time structures:

J’ai habité dans ce village pendant trois ans.
= “I lived in this village for three years.” (but not anymore)

Key points:

Use passé composé (j’ai habité) for a finished action.
Use pendant trois ans (for three years) instead of depuis / ça fait ... que, which imply continuation up to now.

You would not say:

✗ Ça fait trois ans que j’ai habité dans ce village to mean “I lived there for three years (in the past).”
That sounds wrong / confusing; ça fait ... que
- present tense normally implies the situation is still true now.

Are there any important pronunciation points in Ça fait trois ans que j'habite dans ce village?

A few things to watch:

Ça: pronounced like “sa” in English (open a sound).
fait: sounds like “fè”, no t at the end.
trois ans: there is a liaison:
- trois = “trwa”
- ans = “an” (final s silent)
- together: “trwa-zan” (you hear a z sound linking them).
que j'habite: the linking is smooth; que is very reduced, almost “k j’habite”.
village: vi- like “vee”, -llage like “lahj” → “vee-lahj”.

Put it together roughly as:

Sa fè trwa-zan k j’abit dans s(eu) vee-lahj.