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 Sun Mar 16, 2008 11:23 am Usage of 'since' |
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Hi,
The third sentence I would question: | Quote: | | It's been 2 years since I've been going to school |
simply because you are repeating the present perfect aspect.
This sentence doesn't really make sense to me:
| Quote: | | We didn't start the fire. It was always burning since the world's been turning |
Alan
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Alan
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| Sun Mar 16, 2008 13:49 pm Usage of 'since' |
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| Quote: | This sentence doesn't really make sense to me:
Quote:
We didn't start the fire. It was always burning since the world's been turning |
But I picked it from an English song by Billy Joel. |
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daemon99
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| Sun Mar 16, 2008 20:47 pm Usage of 'since' |
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Hi,
All right but it still doesn't make sense to me!
Alan
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Alan
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| Sun Mar 16, 2008 22:34 pm Usage of 'since' |
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Here is a Wikipedia article about Billy Joel's song We Didn't Start the Fire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Didn't_Start_the_Fire
The second paragraph provides an interpretation of those two sentences:
| Quote: | | The song's title and refrain imply that the frenzied and troubled state which others were criticizing had been the state of the world since long before his generation's time, but that this was being ignored by their critics. |
I've always interpreted it the same way.
You need to keep in mind that the words are part of the lyrics of a song. It is not unusual for poets and song writers to "cheat" a little with grammar, and there are a number of reasons that they might do that. Sometimes the only reason they've written something a particular way might be that it fits the beat or the melody better than the grammatically perfect version.
By the way, Billy Joel is something of a legend in my neck of the woods, and at the moment his upcoming concerts are selling out in what seems to be the blink of an eye. Recently, one of his concerts reportedly sold out in 3 minutes! Both of his upcoming shows at Shea Stadium (50,000 seats) are sold out. And tickets for the three shows scheduled at an arena near where I live sold out in under 4 hours. The arena has since added an additional 5 shows -- all of which sold out the same day the tickets became available.
I thought especially some of the German members of this site might be interested in Billy Joel's biography, and his family's connection to the mail order company Neckermann:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Joel
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Yankee
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