French · Chapter 14 · Lesson 12 · Grammar primer
Time expressions depuis
Prescribed by the AQA specification.
The short version
Depuis keeps the verb in the present
If the action is still running, French treats it as a present fact however long it has gone on. J'apprends le français depuis trois ans is I have been learning French for three years, with a plain present apprends. Reaching for the passé composé here is the big depuis error.
J'apprends le français depuis trois ans.
Pendant for time spent, pour for time planned
Pendant measures a finished, bounded stretch: j'ai travaillé pendant deux heures. Pour is for an intended duration still ahead of you: je pars pour une semaine. English uses for in both, which is why learners write j'ai travaillé pour deux heures, and it is wrong.
J'ai travaillé pendant deux heures.
That's the gist. The full article goes deeper - more examples, the edge cases, the why - and the practice below scores like a vocabulary session and earns the same XP.
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One question at a time, mixed across the exercises in this lesson. Miss one and it comes back round before the end.
Lesson 12 of 13 in this chapter