Tell me more ×
English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 1 down vote favorite

Because of our negligence towards the issue since so long, ...

Am I using this correctly? I want to convey something like 1-2 months ago or since around September.

share|improve this question
3  
for so long sounds much more natural to me. – Flimzy Nov 20 '12 at 18:16
In the first place, the usual expression is "for so long," not "since so long." Second, a couple of months may or may not represent a long time. – Robusto Nov 20 '12 at 18:16
@Robusto I didn't use "for so long" for that reason. Should I still go with it? – laggingreflex Nov 20 '12 at 18:25
The correct expression is "for so long" or "since September", not "since so long" – Kristina Lopez Nov 20 '12 at 18:45
If you simply want to indicate an indeterminate length of time which isn't going to be misinterpreted as "for so long" might be, you could use "for however long." That's a contraction of "for however long we have been doing that" which is in common usage and understood in British English, at least. It's a bit colloquial, but you have given no context. – Andrew Leach Nov 20 '12 at 18:47
show 1 more comment

2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

When used in a "time-related" context (as opposed to when it means because), the word since is invariably followed by a reference to an actual time (or event) in the past. For example,...

I've been working since this morning. I've been working since I got up.

You might just about get away with...

I've been living here since so long ago.

...but even adding ago wouldn't make OP's example acceptable to me (though it might for some).

As noted in various comments, the normal usage here would be for so long.

Exactly how long ago so long might be is totally subjective. In some contexts, you might use it to refer back to a time less than an hour ago. In other contexts, people might say that several months (or even years, decades, or centuries) wasn't actually so long ago.

share|improve this answer
I think "since so long ago" connotes a very long time indeed. "I've been living here since so long ago [that I can't remember where I lived before moving here]." Cf "I've been living here since so short a time ago [that I don't know where the nearest post-box is]." – Andrew Leach Nov 20 '12 at 19:58
1  
@Andrew: My Google Books link has just 25 instances of the word sequence "since so long ago", and out of those I can only see maybe 3 or 4 used the way OP asks about (i.e. - without even the supporting word "ago"). I don't see that adding "ago" makes any difference to the length of time you're talking about, but I can see why it makes the construction slightly more acceptable. For example, in "It's been going on since so long ago that I can't remember" the temporal referent could be replaced by "last year", since (!?) they're both valid nouns meaning "a time in the past". – FumbleFingers Nov 20 '12 at 21:44
up vote 0 down vote

One can say “since long ago” understandably and idiomatically, or “for so long” as mentioned in comments, but “since so long” is too awkward for words. As FumbleFingers noted in a comment, “since so long ago” is rare in Google Books. Looking at another corpus – stackoverflow with its approximately 14 million questions, and several times that many answers and comments – “since so long” shows up only 9 times (as of Dec. 2012). Instead, the term of art on SO is the curious “since long time”, which appears about 1150 times. For example, in questions #9590114 line 4, #12569673 line 11, and #13727862 line 1, we see

• I am trying to think (since long time) but I am not able to guess why is it so.
• This problem is bugging me since long time. Thanks.
• One thing has been fascinating me since long time. In languages like c [...]

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.