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  1. This restaurant has been here since my grandparents were alive. But it's changed a lot since then.

  2. I've worked out regularly since I studied at college.

What does it mean to say "since my grandparents were alive" or "since I studied at college"?

Some people told me that they meant "since my grandparents died" and "since I left college". But other people seemed to imply that they meant "since a point during the period when my grandparents were alive" and "since a point during the period when I studied at college".

I've been confused for a while. Could you please tell me which explanation is correct?

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If the condition (studied/grandparents were alive) covers a period of time then it means 'at some time during that period'.

If the condition is at a fixed point (I went to bed/I graduated), then it means 'since that point'.

Consider the sentence:

"I haven't eaten since yesterday evening" - Here it clearly refers to the whole evening. You would never take it to mean that he last ate at the stroke of midnight.

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  • Agreed. Sentence (2) could be better expressed as 'since I was studying at college'.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Nov 3, 2022 at 9:25
  • "since I studied at college" implies that you only did a small amount of studying at a particular point of time (c.f. "since I broke my leg on vacation").
    – Stuart F
    Commented Nov 3, 2022 at 13:47

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