tu n'as pas habité ici depuis longtemps

Question

Why is this marked wrong?

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Kalpana,
As Maarten correctly pointed out, the section mentioned in his reply is the one to look for. Also, the action "living here" has not stopped as it is still ongoing right now so:
Ne ... pas + Le Présent Indicatif + depuis longtemps = not long / not for long-> It started a short while ago, and is still ongoing
If you'd use Le Passé Composé, you would imply that the action is completed and over, hence in the past whereas here, the action is still ongoing, hence we have to use Le Présent in French. 
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !

Answer

Hard to answer without including the question - you can use the quiz question report button to enable review of question and answer. Knowing the sentence for translation is especially important in this context - perhaps you could post again with it included ?

Answer

Hello Maarten: thank you for prompting me to clarify. The question was: How would you say ''You haven't lived here long.'' ?

I applied the rule that says negative statements using "depuis" require the compound past tense. However, the correct answer is given as a present indicative (Tu n'habites pas ici depuis longtemps) which I understand one uses in affirmative statements. What am I missing? I would be grateful for an explanation. Also, thank you so much for replying to my previously posted queries. I found them very helpful indeed. : ))

Answer

Kalpana - have a look at the section below from the lesson - special case with ‘depuis longtemps’. Negation with “(Passé composé) depuis longtemps” translates to ‘….. not in a long time’; Negation with “(present tense) depuis longtemps” translates to ‘….. not (for) (very) long’ - which is the expression required. 
Special case of depuis longtemps = not long vs not in a long time
Je ne vis pas en France depuis longtemps = I haven't been living in France for long.
Je n'ai pas vécu en France depuis longtemps = I haven't lived in France in a long time.
Il ne m'a pas parlé depuis longtemps = He hasn't spoken to me in a long time.
Nous n'habitons pas ici depuis très longtemps = We haven't lived here very long.

Answer

Thanks Maarten! I will have to work on this. It's fantastic of you to help me out.ps: I'll never complain about the complexity of Sanskrit grammar anymore!!