Time Expressions: depuis, il y a, pendant, dans
കാല സൂചക പദങ്ങൾ: depuis, il y a, pendant, dans
Four small words carve up how French talks about duration, and one of them — depuis — trips up learners by pairing with a tense that feels wrong until you see the logic behind it.
Grammar Comparison
വ്യാകരണ താരതമ്യം
depuis + PRÉSENT for an action still ongoing
J'habite ici depuis trois ans. (I have been living here for three years — and I still do)
ഞാൻ മൂന്നു വർഷമായി ഇവിടെ താമസിക്കുന്നു. (വർത്തമാനകാലം, ഇപ്പോഴും തുടരുന്നു)
This is a genuine surprise if you're used to marking an ongoing-since-the-past action with a compound past ('have been living'): French simply uses présent, because from the speaker's point of view the action is happening right now, and depuis supplies the 'since/for' meaning the tense alone doesn't carry. Malayalam actually agrees with French here — താമസിക്കുന്നു ('living', present) plus -ആയി ('for/since') expresses exactly the same ongoing sense, so once you stop expecting a compound past, the French logic lines up naturally with your Malayalam instinct.
depuis covers both 'since [a point]' and 'for [a duration]'
depuis 2020 (since 2020, a point in time) / depuis trois ans (for three years, a duration)
2020 മുതൽ (ഒരു നിശ്ചിത സമയം മുതൽ) / മൂന്നു വർഷമായി (കാലയളവ്)
French uses depuis for both meanings and lets context — a date/event versus a length of time — tell you which sense applies, exactly the way Malayalam attaches -മുതൽ to a point in time and -ആയി to a stretch of time without needing two unrelated words. Once you've internalized that split in Malayalam, depuis simply collapses both of those Malayalam suffixes into one French word.
il y a = ago (with a past tense, action is over)
J'ai visité Paris il y a deux ans. (I visited Paris two years ago)
ഞാൻ രണ്ടു വർഷം മുൻപ് പാരീസ് സന്ദർശിച്ചു.
il y a here means 'ago' and pairs with a completed past tense (passé composé), the mirror opposite of depuis — the action is finished, not ongoing, matching Malayalam's -മുൻപ് ('before/ago') attached to a completed-past verb. Don't confuse this il y a with the identical-looking il y a meaning 'there is/are' (il y a un problème) — same words, unrelated meaning, disambiguated entirely by context.
pendant = for/during a bounded stretch (any tense, action is complete or fully framed)
J'ai travaillé pendant huit heures. (I worked for eight hours — a finished, bounded stretch)
ഞാൻ എട്ടു മണിക്കൂർ ജോലി ചെയ്തു.
pendant frames a duration as a complete block, regardless of when it happened — past, present, or future — unlike depuis, which specifically signals an action still in progress relative to now. If you can put a clear end-point on the duration (worked for eight hours, then stopped), pendant is the right choice, not depuis; Malayalam usually leaves this distinction to context alone, since എട്ടു മണിക്കൂർ ('eight hours') needs no separate marker word the way pendant is required in French.
dans = in [amount of time from now], future-only
Je reviens dans dix minutes. (I'll be back in ten minutes)
ഞാൻ പത്തു മിനിറ്റിനുള്ളിൽ തിരിച്ചു വരും.
dans marks how far in the future something will happen, measured from the moment of speaking — it never refers to the past, matching Malayalam's -ഇനുള്ളിൽ ('within'). It should not be confused with pendant (a duration something lasts) or en (how long something takes to complete, e.g. Je fais ça en dix minutes, 'I do this within/in ten minutes' as a measure of speed).
Vocabulary
വാക്കുകൾ
- Malayalam
- ...മുതൽ / ...ആയി...muthal / ...aayi
- English
- since / for (ongoing)
- Malayalam
- ...മുൻപ്...munpu
- English
- ago
- Malayalam
- ...നേരം (പൂർത്തിയായ)...neram (poorthiyaaya)
- English
- for/during (bounded duration)
- Malayalam
- ...ഇനുള്ളിൽ (ഭാവിയിൽ)...inulli (bhaaviyil)
- English
- in (future time from now)
- Malayalam
- ...ഇനുള്ളിൽ (എടുക്കുന്ന സമയം)...inulli (edukkunna samayam)
- English
- within/in (time taken to complete)