Learn Hardcore French: Depuis que je vis dans ce village, je me sens plus calme. - Since I have been living in this village, I feel calmer.

French uses the present tense + depuis (que) to express an action that started in the past and still continues now. English usually uses the present perfect (have done) or present perfect continuous (have been doing) for this idea.

Depuis que je vis dans ce village literally: Since I live in this village
Natural English: Since I have been living in this village / Since I’ve lived in this village

So:

Je vis ici depuis 2019.
= I have been living here since 2019.

Using the present tense in French here is normal and correct; it does not mean “I live” only in the present, but “I have lived and still live”.

Could I say Depuis que j’habite dans ce village instead of Depuis que je vis dans ce village? What’s the difference between vivre and habiter?

Yes, you can say Depuis que j’habite dans ce village, and it is very natural.

Subtle difference:

habiter = to live in / to reside in (a place, an address)
- J’habite dans ce village. = I live in / I reside in this village.
vivre = to live in a broader sense (to be alive, to live one’s life, live somewhere)
- Je vis dans ce village. = I live in this village (life in general, not just residence)

In many contexts, vivre dans ce village and habiter dans ce village overlap and both are fine.
In this sentence, vivre might slightly emphasize your life experience in the village, while habiter focuses more on residence. But in everyday speech, the difference here is very small.

Why do we say je me sens plus calme and not je sens plus calme?

Se sentir is a reflexive verb meaning to feel (a certain way) about oneself, emotionally or physically:

Je me sens fatigué. = I feel tired.
Elle se sent mieux. = She feels better.

If you drop me, sentir changes meaning:

sentir alone = to smell or to sense:
- Je sens le parfum. = I smell the perfume.
- Je sens quelque chose. = I sense something.

So:

Je me sens plus calme. = I feel calmer. (about myself)
Je sens plus calme. = incorrect sentence in French

You must use the reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nous, vous, se) with sentir when you mean “to feel + adjective” about yourself.

Could I say je suis plus calme instead of je me sens plus calme? Is there a difference?

Both are grammatically correct but not identical in nuance:

Je suis plus calme.
= I am calmer.
This sounds more like you are stating a fact or a quality about yourself.
Je me sens plus calme.
= I feel calmer.
This emphasizes your internal perception or your subjective feeling.

In the original sentence, je me sens plus calme fits very well because you are talking about how your feelings have changed since moving to the village.
You can say je suis plus calme, but it sounds a bit more objective, like a general characteristic.

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

In French, the common way to say “in this village” is:

dans ce village = literally “inside this village”

The preposition à is not used the same way as English in. We say:

à Paris, à Londres – in Paris, in London (for cities)
dans ce village, dans cette maison – in this village, in this house

You wouldn’t normally say à ce village to mean “in this village.” À ce village would only appear in special expressions, not as a normal way to express location inside the village.

So:

Correct: Je vis dans ce village.
Not natural: Je vis à ce village.

What exactly does depuis que mean here? Is it more “since” in a time sense, or “because”?

Depuis que primarily expresses time: since the moment when…

Depuis que je vis dans ce village = Since (the time when) I have been living in this village

However, in both French and English, this kind of “since” can also imply a cause:

Since I’ve been living in this village, I feel calmer
⇒ Living in the village is presented as the time reference, but it also suggests a reason for feeling calmer.

So:

Grammar: depuis que = since (the time when)
Interpretation: It locates the change in time, and implicitly suggests a causal link, but if you want a purely causal meaning, you would normally use parce que (because).

How does the comparative plus calme work? Why not something different?

Plus calme is a comparative of the adjective calme (calm):

calme = calm
plus calme = calmer, more calm
moins calme = less calm
aussi calme = as calm

Here:

je me sens plus calme = I feel calmer (than before).

The comparison is understood: since I live in this village, I feel calmer [than I used to feel before].

Also, note it is an adjective, not an adverb:

Je me sens plus calme. (adjective, describes me)
Not: Je me sens plus calmement. (calmement is an adverb, “calmly”, and would sound wrong here)

Why is it je me sens plus calme and not je sens plus calme or je sens plus calmement?

Three key points:

Reflexive form needed
To express how you feel (emotionally/physically) about yourself, you use se sentir + adjective:
- Je me sens plus calme.
Adjective, not adverb
You’re describing your state, not how you do an action:
- calme (adjective) describes you.
- calmement (adverb) would describe how you do something (e.g. speaking calmly).
Wrong/unnatural forms:
- Je sens plus calme. – incorrect structure
- Je sens plus calmement. – would mean I sense/smell more calmly, which doesn’t fit the meaning.

So je me sens plus calme is the correct and natural way to say I feel calmer.

Can I change the word order and say Je me sens plus calme depuis que je vis dans ce village? Is that still correct?

Yes, that word order is completely correct and very common:

Depuis que je vis dans ce village, je me sens plus calme.
Je me sens plus calme depuis que je vis dans ce village.

Both mean the same thing. Moving depuis que… to the end just changes the rhythm and emphasis slightly:

At the beginning: more emphasis on the time frame (“since living in this village…”).
At the end: more emphasis on the result (“I feel calmer… since living in this village.”)

Grammatically, both are fine.

How do you conjugate vivre in the present tense, and is je vis pronounced like vie?

Vivre (to live) is irregular in the present:

je vis – I live
tu vis – you live
il/elle/on vit – he/she/one lives
nous vivons – we live
vous vivez – you (pl/formal) live
ils/elles vivent – they live

Pronunciation:

je vis is pronounced like [ʒə vi], the same as the word vie (life).
vit (il/elle vit) is also pronounced [vi].
The differences vis / vit / vie are written, not spoken; they are homophones in the singular.

How would I say this sentence in a negative form, and is there a difference between ne… plus and ne… pas plus?

Two useful negative possibilities:

Simple negation (not calmer):
- Depuis que je vis dans ce village, je ne me sens pas plus calme.
  = Since I’ve been living in this village, I don’t feel any calmer.
Here ne… pas simply negates the whole idea.
“No longer / not anymore” calmer:
- Je ne me sens plus calme. on its own means I no longer feel calm or I don’t feel calm anymore.

In your structure:

Depuis que je vis dans ce village, je ne me sens plus calme.
Usually understood as: Since I’ve been living in this village, I no longer feel calm (before you did, now you don’t).

So:

ne… pas plus calme = not calmer (than before)
ne… plus calme = no longer calm(er), not calm anymore

Is there another common way in French to express the same idea as Depuis que je vis dans ce village, je me sens plus calme?

Yes, a very common alternative is the “ça fait… que” structure:

Ça fait que je vis dans ce village que je me sens plus calme. – awkward: the clauses are not well placed.
More natural:
- Ça fait longtemps que je vis dans ce village, et je me sens plus calme.
  = I’ve been living in this village for a long time, and I feel calmer.

But to keep the same “since…” idea in one sentence, the original Depuis que… structure is the most direct and idiomatic:

Depuis que je vis dans ce village, je me sens plus calme.

Other close variants:

Depuis que j’habite dans ce village, je me sens plus calme.
Depuis que j’ai emménagé dans ce village, je me sens plus calme.
(Since I moved into this village…)