Present tense or not when using "depuis"?

Quote from lesson outlining the use of “depuis”:

"Notice how these actions started in the past, but they're still ongoing - they haven't finished yet. We would normally use the present perfect (i.e. "have done") or the present perfect continuous (i.e. "have been doing") for this in English, but in this French construction, we have to use le présent."

That is to say that the sentence “I have lived here for five years” should be translated as: “Je habite ici depuis cinq ans” and not “Jái habitè ici …etc.”.

However I just received a “Phrase of the week” from Rocket French which was:

“Il n’a pas fumé depuis sept ans.” 

This seems to be in violation with the first rule, as I would have expected "Il ne fume pas depuis sept ans.”

What am I not getting? Does one have to use the present tense or not when “depuis” is used? I am confused.

Looking forward to clarification!

Sten-Erik

Bonjour,

• Sorry for the late reply, but I thought I'd chime in and see if I could help you with this.
  
  1) As per the lesson, in affirmative sentences with ‘depuis’ we use the present tense to show that an action started in the past, but has continued up to and into the present. As per your example:
•  

- J'habite ici depuis cinq ans. (I have been living here for five years.)

This shows a continued, active action, i.e. you are still actively living here. So, for affirmative sentences, yes, we use the present tense in French.

2) BUT for negative sentences we tend to switch to a past tense. 

A key point to note here is that different tenses are used in both English and French. English uses the present perfect continuous for both positive and negative sentences, to show a continuous action. However, French doesn't have that, so the structure needs to be built another way. 

So, for positive sentences we can use the present tense in French because it implies the action has carried on into the present. However, in French it doesn't make much sense to say you don't actively do something for a period of time. Have a look at the example sentence again with direct translations:

- J'habite ici depuis cinq ans. (I am living here for five years.)

- Je n'habite pas ici depuis cinq ans. (I am not living here for five years.)

When you directly translate it, it also doesn't make too much sense in English, although it may be understandable. In French, we can't really say that an action isn't occuring (in the present) for five years.

This is because we don't have a continuous tense, so we have to say that the action hasn't occured at any point during the past five years, and to say that, we need the past tense.

- Je n'ai pas habité ici depuis cinq ans. (I haven't lived here for five years.)
 

3) In the negative, another structure is often used instead of ‘depuis’.

At this point I think it's also worth noting that in French we often prefer to use a different structure that does use the present tense to express the same idea.

- Cela fait cinq ans que je n'habite plus ici. This translates literally as, “That makes five years that I no longer live here” which sounds a bit strange in English but it's perfectly fine in French.

I may have gone on a bit of a tangent towards the end there, but essentially the issue lies in the fact that French doesn't have continuous tenses, so when learning temporal expressions like ‘depuis’, the languages often differ in their use of tense, particularly when comparing positive and negative sentences.

I hope this helps,

   -   Mitchell