Use of depuis with Passe Compose?

Jorge Z.A2Kwiziq community member

Use of depuis with Passe Compose?

Based on  the lesson ¨Using depuis (since/for) with Le Present and NOT let Passé Composé (prepositions of time)"  In a related kwiz I translated the phrase: The Woman in Black has haunted this house for centuries,  into : La Dame en Noir hante cette maison depuis des siècles which was incorrect although I used the present tense as stated in the lesson.

 The correct form should have been: La Dame en Noir  a hanté cette maison depuis des siècles which is using le Passé Composé. 

Can someone explain this to me please?

Asked 4 years ago
Maarten K.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

I have just done the quiz and 'hante' in the present tense is marked correct, as it should be. Maybe there was a technical error at the time, or you may have had a 'click' error (been there, done that). Better to report these directly from the test through the report button, because it links directly to your response.

Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Hi Jorge,

Elle hante cette maison depuis des siècles. -- She's been haunting this house for centuries (and is still doing so today).
Elle a hanté cette maison depuis des siècles. -- She's haunted this house for centuries (but not anymore).

To sum up, below are the two most frequently met cases:

Something started in the past and continues up until the present.
English: present perfect continuous tense ("has been haunting")
French: present tense (elle hante)

 

Something started in the past and also finished in the past.
English: present perfect tense ("has haunted")
French: passé composé (elle a hanté)

Cheryl M.A2Kwiziq community member

Just adding something else to the witch’s pot, does « La Dame en Noir hantait cette maison depuis des siècles. » mean she had been haunting the house for centuries (and still is?). Merci.

Cheryl M.A2Kwiziq community member

Jorge, I believe in your sentence, the passé composé is used when the with did haunt this house IN THE PAST, but no longer is.  (She’s been exorcised ; )

Use of depuis with Passe Compose?

Based on  the lesson ¨Using depuis (since/for) with Le Present and NOT let Passé Composé (prepositions of time)"  In a related kwiz I translated the phrase: The Woman in Black has haunted this house for centuries,  into : La Dame en Noir hante cette maison depuis des siècles which was incorrect although I used the present tense as stated in the lesson.

 The correct form should have been: La Dame en Noir  a hanté cette maison depuis des siècles which is using le Passé Composé. 

Can someone explain this to me please?

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