2021-04-15
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด – A – ago & since
แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง ago = ‘uh-GOH’
ออกเสียง since = ‘SINS’
Dictionary of Problem Words in English
ago & since
These wordsrefer to past time,
but they should notbe used together.
Do not write “It was five years ago since I last saw Ben.”
Follow ago with that or omit ago:
“It was five years ago that I last saw Ben.”
“It is five years since I last saw Ben.”
The construction ago since is both wordyand illogical.
Agocarries thought from present to past time;
since conveys thoughtfrom past to present.
Abused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree
Since = from then until now;
= between then and now;
= before now
Not to be confused with:
cents = pennies, bronze coins
scents = odors, perfumes
sense = perceive, grasp, comprehend
Dictionary.com
VOCAB BUILDER
What does ago mean?
Ago means in the past.
It’s always used in combination with other words
that indicate exactlyor about
how much time has passed since something happened
—never by itself (you wouldn’t say That happened ago).
Examples of such phrases
are three weeks ago, an hour ago,
five days ago, long ago,
and a long time ago.
Example: A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ….
Where does ago come from?
Ago entered English long ago, before the year 1000.
It comes from the Old English word āgān,meaning “to go by” or “to pass.”
It uses the prefix a-, which is added to verbs
to indicate the start or end of an action (as in arise).
The go part comes from the same word that gave us the English verb go.
Ago is so common that we can take it for granted,
but there’s no simpler way to say what it says.
With just three letters, it acts as a time machine,
taking us from the present to the past.
How far back it takes usis determined by the words that it follows,
from one second ago to billions of years ago to long, long ago.
Long ago is just one of the many common phrases
that ago appears in,
and it can also be used as a noun
(as in - In the long ago, we hunted and foraged for food)
or a compound adjective
(as in -These monuments were built by long-ago civilizations).
Sometimes, ago is followed by the word today,
as in - nine years ago today,
indicating that
something happened exactly on this date nine years in the past.
Ago should not be confused with the noun phrase a go,
as in - The plan is a go (meaning that it has been approved)
or Give it a go (meaning“try it”).
And, we’re sorry to point this out,
but ago is one of those common words
that starts to sound strange when you repeat ita bunch of times.
Go on, give it a go.
Collins English Usage
Usage:
The use of ago with since (it's ten years ago since he wrote the novel)
is redundant and should be avoided:
it is ten years since he wrote the novel
Collins COBUILD English Usage
ago
You use ago to say how much time has passed
since something happened.
For example, if it is now Sunday and something happened on Thursday,
it happened three days ago.
We met two months ago.
We got married about a year ago.
Be Careful!
You use the past simple, not the present perfect, with ago.
For example,
you say 'He died four years ago'.
Don't say 'He has died four years ago'.
Seven years ago, she gave birth to their daughter, Nelly.
I did it just a moment ago.
You use ago only when you are talking about
a period of time measured back from the present.
If you are talking about a period measured back from an earlier time,
you use the past perfect with before or previously.
The centre had been opened some years before.
The accident had happened nearly two years previously.
Be Careful!
Don't use ago and 'since' together.
Don't say, for example, 'It is three years ago since it happened'.
You say 'It happened three years ago'
or 'It is three years since it happened'.
He died two years ago.
It is two weeks since I wrote to him.
See since
Be Careful!
Don't say, for example, 'It has been happening since three years ago'.
You say 'It has been happening for three years'.
I have lived here for nearly twenty years.
I have known you for a long time.
See for
Collins COBUILD English Usage
since
1. 'since'
You use since to say that something has been true from a particular time in the past until now.
Exam results have improved since 2001.
I've been wearing glasses since I was three.
Be Careful!
In sentences like these you use a perfect form with since.
Don't say 'Exam results improved since 2001'
or 'I am wearing glasses since I was three'.
You can also use since to say how long ago something happened.
When you use since like this, use a simple form.
For example,
instead of saying 'I last saw him five years ago',
you can say 'It's five years since I last saw him'.
It's three months since Kathy left.
It's years since I heard that song.
2. 'for'
If you want to say how long something has been true,
use for, not 'since'.
We've been married for seven years.
I've known Adeel for ages.
See for
3. 'during' and 'over'
To say how long something has been happening,
use during or over.
A lot of rain has fallen during the past two days.
Things have become worse over the past few months.
4. 'from ... to'
To say when something began and finished, use from and to.
Mr Ito was headmaster from 1998 to 2007.
Instead of 'to', you can use till or until.
The noise continued from nine in the morning till 5 p.m.
Be Careful!
Don't use 'since' and 'to'.
Don't say, for example, 'He was headmaster since 1998 to 2007'.
5. used to mean 'because'
Since can also be used to mean 'because'.
Aircraft noise is a problem here since we're close to Heathrow Airport.
See because
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Usage Notes
'Since' vs. 'As' vs. 'Because'
Which conjunction should you use to show cause?
For reasons that confound the humble lexicographer,
some people have quite a beef with conjunctions.
Specifically, people seem to be confused
about which kinds of conjunctions you can use where.
That's right:
there's more than one kind of conjunction.
There's one type of conjunction in particular
that's been a bugaboo for grammariansfor centuries,
and that is the causal conjunction.
As their name suggests,
causal conjunctionsare used
to connect two related clauses orsentences
and to show a cause-and-effect relationship between the two:
We have no dessert in the house
because you ate all the ice cream last night.
Because is the conjunction that gets the most use,
but there are a few others in use
--much to the consternation of usage commentators of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The two causal conjunctions
that get the most ire from grammariansare since and as.
Since is used as a causal conjunction (and has been since the 16th century) in the same way that because is used:
Since you ate the ice cream last night, we don't have any dessert tonight.
Usage mavensof the 20th century rejected this use.
Since as a conjunction can refer both to
causationand to the passage of time
("It's been two weeks since we've had any ice cream in this house"),
and the mavens believed strongly that
since there's potential confusion
over which meaningof since is meant,
one should avoid since as a causal conjunction.
What are we to make, they would say, of the sentence
"We had dessert since he had bought ice cream"?
Is the writer saying that after he bought ice cream,
they had been steadily having dessert?
Or is the writer saying that because he bought ice cream, they had dessert?
These mavens asked a solid question
that is, nonetheless, mostly irrelevant in the real world.
Such instances of ambiguityare few and far between in actual use: sentences tend to appear surrounded by other sentences,
and this context often makes it clear
whether the writeris using the causal since or the time-related since.
We've used a few sinces here, and
it's probable you didn't stumble over them at all.
There is a subtle difference between since and because, however:
since expressesa milder degree of causality than because does.
Since doesn't get all the ire.
The conjunctive as gets dumped on even more.
The conjunction as has a number of meanings and uses,
including both one that marks time (“We had dessert as we watched TV”)
and causation (“We had dessert, as we had ice cream in the house”),
and both of these uses are over 1,000 yearsold.
The time-related meaningof as is more common
than the causalmeaning of as¸
and for this reason, usage commentators still advise against it:
In the causal sense,
as should generally be avoided because (not as!)
it may be understood as having its more usual meaning “while,”
especially when it is placed anywhere but at the beginning of the sentence.
—Bryan Garner, Garner’s Modern English Usage, 4th ed., 2016
Sound advice.
And yet our research shows that,
in real life, conjunctive uses of as are rarely confusing.
Just like since,
the conjunctive as rarely appears in a sentence that is contextless,
and the context can often help disambiguate the meaning of as.
Here are some real-world examples
of the conjunctive as.
See which ones trip you up:
THESEUS. Oh! Then as I’m a respectable man,
and rather particular about the company I keep, I think I’ll go
—W. S. Gilbert, Thespis, 1871
... I shall prepare my most plaintive airs against his return,
in compassion to his feelings, as I know his horse will lose.
—Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814
Indeed, some jurors confirmed later that day
that they wished they had been given the manslaughter option
as they didn’t believe the au pair intended to harm the baby.
—Kimberly Mills, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 14 Nov. 1997
This last example is cited by Garner as an example of the ambiguous as,
but that seems to be readingambiguity into a sentence
where there is none.
It’s clear from the context that
the as here doesn’t mean “while,” but “because.”
As is much more formal than either since or because,
but this is no reason to reject it as a causal conjunction.
What advice would we give?
Since as a causal conjunction is almost unremarkable
except to a few stick-in-the-muds,
and is sometimes preferable
when you want the cause to be less directly linked to the effect.
As will garner more criticism if you use it as a causal conjunction,
but if you need the formality of as,
make sure that the sentence can’t be misconstrued at all
by substituting in both because and while in your sentence.
When in doubt, you can always default to because,
since no one finds fault with it.
