Grammar Fix: I live here since 2020: since, for, and the tense that goes with them

Objective & content

students correctly switch to the present perfect (have + past participle) when a state or action started in the past and is still true now, signalled by since (a starting point) or for (a length of time), and avoid overcorrecting into the present perfect for a genuinely finished past action. The printable is the unit's class pack: one A4 pupil sheet (recognition items, then fill-in and word-order drills) printed once per pupil, and one teacher sheet with the answer key and the notes below.

Pedagogical guide

every one of our learners' first languages keeps the ordinary present tense for "started in the past, still true now," paired with their own equivalent of since/for — French depuis, Spanish desde, Italian da, Portuguese desde, Polish od, German/Austrian seit, Dutch sinds. All 8 markets agree here, with no partial exception anywhere in the set — the strongest, most uniform universal case in the line since the pilot (third-person-s). So "I live here since 2020" isn't a random slip, it's the direct calque of a construction every one of our students' L1s treats as correct; English is the outlier in forcing a tense switch the moment "started then, still true now" is meant. Use it after the class has watched the unit, or on its own as a targeted repair when the mistake shows up in written work.

Suggested procedure

1. (3 min) Write the target sentence on the board and ask what is wrong with it. Collect the class's answers.
2. (10 min) Pupils work through the pupil sheet alone: recognition items first, then the drills.
3. (5 min) Check with the teacher sheet. Read the explanation of each recognition item aloud.
4. (2 min) Exit line: each pupil writes one correct sentence with the structure on a slip of paper.

Adaptations

• [S] Do the recognition items together as a class before pupils try the drills alone.
• [A] ask students to write 3 true sentences about themselves using since or for (e.g. "I've lived in ___ since ___" / "I've known my best friend for ___ years"), then swap with a partner, who must ask a matching "How long have you...?" question and answer it back.

Materials & prerequisites

One pupil sheet per pupil, one teacher sheet. No audio needed; the Grammar Fix unit video is an optional lead-in. Watch for: staying in the present simple where the present perfect is required (this sheet's core recognition and drill items — "I live here since 2020" instead of "I've lived here since 2020"); missing have in "how long" questions, since the auxiliary is needed there too, not just in statements; confusing since (a starting point: since 2020, since school) with for (a length of time: for five years) after the connector has otherwise been recognised as a signal; and, once the rule lands, overcorrecting by switching to the present perfect for a genuinely finished past action that carries its own explicit finished-time marker — "I have lived in Rome last year" instead of "I lived in Rome last year." A third of this sheet's items are built specifically to catch that overcorrection, so a student who "gets" the main rule can still fail these.

Curriculum alignment

Grammar tags: present-perfect-simple. Filed at B1- (the level where the mistake starts to appear); the example sentences stay inside that band.

Assessment & extensions

The exit line is the check. Extend with the Grammar Fix unit itself, or with the grammar sheet on the same structure when one exists.