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I'm new so please excuse if I'm asking something that had been many times before. I'm a foreigner living in UK, who loves English language so I strive for perfect use every time.

Sometimes people ask me how long I have been in this country. I like to round the number of years to the month in which I came, which was October. Therefore if someone asked me today I would have said:

I will have been 7 years in the country this October.

or if today was sometime in December I would have said

Last October I have been 7 years in the country.

So simple question: are these forms correct? Or should I just do the simple "I will be 7 years here this October"?

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  • I'd say "in this country 7 years" rather than "7 years in the country", but the verb tense is fine, whereas "I will be" is incorrect.
    – Peter Shor
    Aug 27, 2012 at 12:16
  • -1 Lacks research. Question is too simple: voting to close GR.
    – MetaEd
    Aug 27, 2012 at 15:54
  • @meta: I don't think OP knows anything about research. :)
    – Noah
    Aug 27, 2012 at 18:39

5 Answers 5

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"I will have been 7 years in the country this October"

...is fine, but I'd rejig it a bit, so:

"I will have been in the country seven years this October".

For the second, you could say:

"Last October was the start of my eighth year in the country".

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  • No, you could say 'Last October was the start of my eighth year here' if that was the seventh anniversary of arrival.
    – Tim Lymington
    Aug 27, 2012 at 13:16
  • Thanks for the comment. Even if my maths was a bit skewiff, was the English usage correct? I thought that was what we were here to establish.
    – charles.abcam
    Aug 27, 2012 at 14:15
  • Yes, though I think here (or there as appropriate) sounds more natural: I thought that was what I had said. (And is that really the current spelling of skew-whiff? You learn something every day.)
    – Tim Lymington
    Aug 27, 2012 at 14:25
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How about:

This October, I will have been in the country for 7 years.

and

As of last October, I had been in the country for 7 years.

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    This is the most natural-sounding rephrasing, except I'd make one tiny modification to the second one: "As of last October, I have been in the country for 7 years." (Because you presumably haven't left.)
    – Marthaª
    Aug 27, 2012 at 16:35
  • Ah yes - in-advertant use of the pluperfect... well spotted!
    – Andrew
    Aug 27, 2012 at 17:42
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You'll have to decide between sounding natural and 'using perfect English', Tomasz.

Very few natives would give a response beyond "Seven years," Seven years or so," "About seven years," or "About seven years now."

Of course, logically, natives couldn't actually answer this particular question: it would have to be: "How long have you lived in Yorkshire?"

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  • 2
    I think in the UK the most "natural" response, bearing in mind OP's wish to round to the nearest year, would be "Seven years come October". Regardless of whether or not the "I will have been" and "in this country" components are present.
    – FumbleFingers
    Aug 27, 2012 at 16:34
  • @FumbleFingers: or it will be seven years this October.
    – Noah
    Aug 28, 2012 at 2:58
  • Thank you for you help. I really like the "come October" approach. I think I will stick to that.
    – TomaszRykala
    Aug 29, 2012 at 13:18
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So simple question: are these forms correct? Or should I just do the simple "I will be 7 years here this October"?

They sound unnatural and make it obvious they are the words of someone for whom English is not their first language.

For your first sentence, I would say: In October, I will have been in this country for seven years.

For your second sentence, I would say: Since October, I have been in this country for seven years.

Those would be more natural ways to say those senstences.

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  • Personally, I can't really see much difference, from the grammar point of view, between "I will have been 7 years in the country this October." and "In October, I will have been in this country for seven years" but I appreciate your suggestion.
    – TomaszRykala
    Aug 29, 2012 at 13:20
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For spoken English, the following are the shortest, clearest forms I can think of in a conversational response to the question How long have you been in this country?

7 years as of October.

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  • 1
    I think you forgot about November :D
    – MarkTO
    Feb 5, 2019 at 20:20
  • @MarkTO thanks, edit answer to make it one case instead of two.
    – zooone9243
    Feb 5, 2019 at 22:53

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