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What’s the difference between these two:

  1. I have known her for a long time.
  2. I have known her since a long time.

I think that the first one says that we have been friends for a long time but we broke our friendship recently, but that the second one says that we have been friends since a long time and our friendship still continues?

Is this accurate?

tchrist
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BoSsYyY
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2 Answers2

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The first statement show the propinquity between the speaker and the second person (party). The second statement shows the identification of the object (person) in the sentence, it could rely on the character, ideology, and personality of the person, which there is no or less relationship affinity.

Adeniyi
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    Why propinquity rather than the more common proximity or the even better closeness or distance? Also, "since a long time" is ungrammatical in English. – tchrist Aug 19 '17 at 15:32
  • I don't think using the word propinquity in that sentence is wrong, what do you mean? Is it because using "since and longtime" in the sentence forms tautology? – Adeniyi Aug 19 '17 at 17:06
  • Okay, concerning the question, "since and long time" in the sentence, could it be called tautology? – Adeniyi Aug 21 '17 at 13:24
  • I just came across that word that's why I used it – Adeniyi Aug 21 '17 at 13:27
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John Lawler wrote in a comment:

The first sentence is grammatical and indicates nothing about breaking or even having friendship; only acquaintance. The second sentence is ungrammatical and therefore means nothing, because since requires a object noun phrase referring to some point of time in the past, not a length of time.

tchrist
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