I have a question about expressing how long or since when something has been happening.

I´m familiar with the expression - dan beri to use to say that something has been happening since a specific point in time (1974´dan beri, bu sabahtan beri, yataktan kalktýðýmdan beri, etc.). I´m wondering how to express for how long something has been going on in terms of days, months, years, etc.

For example, to say: "I haven´t seen you for a month.", would it be ok to say:

- Bir aydan beri seni görmedim./Bir aydan beri seni görmiyorum.

- Bir aydir seni görmedim./Bir aydir seni görmiyorum.

- Bir ay için seni görmedim./Bir ay için seni görmiyorum.

- Seni gördüðümden beri bir aydir.?

- some other way???

Also, to express that concept, is it better to use the past tense (-di) or the present continuous (-iyor)?

And, on a similar note, to express the same concept in the future, would "için" be used? For example: "Turkiye´ye tatile üç hafta için gideceðim."?

Thank you for any explanation on the subject.

 -dan generally corresponds to the use of since, from or even for in languages that uses prepositions. But this correspondence is very general. I know this is a bit off topic, but just to give you an idea of how the use of -dan as a postposition appears in another language, I want to mention the Japanese use of kara, which means from.

Istanbul+dan / From Istanbul

Istanbul kara / From Istanbul (japanese)

Anyway, back to your question...

I haven´t seen you for a month could be expressed by saying:

Seni bir aydir gormedim. / I haven´t seen you in a month.

Seni bir aydir gormuyorum. Nerelerdesin? / I haven´t seen you in a month. Where have you been?

Bir aydir yoksun ortada. Nerelerdesin? / It has been a month since you have been around. Where have you been? (The sun of yoksun is actually derived from the word sen, and that is how it conveys the meaning that you are referring to a second person singular.)

Bir aydir gorusemiyoruz. / We haven´t seen or have been able to see each other for a month.

Bir aydan beri gorusemiyoruz. / We haven´t seen or have been able to see each other for a month.

Iki gundur elektrik kesik. / The power has been out for two days.

Elektrik iki gunden beri kesik. / The power has been out for the past two days.

Gunlerdir hava kapali. / The weather has been gray & gloomy for days now.

Kac gundur hava yagmurlu. / It has been rainy for days now.

Seni kac aydir gormedim. Nerelerdesin? Napiyorsun? / I haven´t seen you in months. Where have you been? How are things?

Kac aydir sesin cikmiyor. Ne oldu? / Haven´t heard a word from you in months. What happened?

Kac aydir yoksun ortada (ortalarda). Nerelerdesin? / Haven´t seen you around in months. Where have you been?

O gunden beri onu gormedim. / I never saw him again since then.

Onu o gunden beri bir daha gormedim. / Since that day, I never saw him again.

O gunden beri gorusemiyoruz. / We haven´t been able to see each other since that day or since then.

Askere gitiginden beri onu gormedim. / I haven´t seen him since he left for his military service.

Askere gittignden beri gorusemiyoruz. / We have not been in touch (see each other) since he left for the army.

The traslations are not word-by-word by the way. They just convey the general meaning. Also, keep in mind that you would use differnet forms if you were talking to a friend and others if you were writing an article or a formal letter.

Aylardir, in general, conveys the sense of "for many months."

Aylardir yoksun. / You haven´t been around for months.

Gunlerdir kar yagiyor. / It has been snowing for many days.

Kac aydir, in general would convey the sense of "for many months" as well.

Kac aydir yoksun. / You haven´t been around for months.

The use of all these forms depend on the context, and some sound more informal, or slang than others.

You are more likely to hear a friend say Kac aydir yoksun ortada than you would encounter it in a newspaper article. Within some contexts they all mean the same, and in others, there are nuances in meaning.

I would suggest that you stick with the forms that you feel comfortable with, and try to recognize the other forms so that you can understand native speakers when they use them.

Bir aydir yoksun. Ne oldu? / You haven´t been around for a month. What happened?

Bir aydir yoktun. Ne oldu? / You haven´t been around for a month. What happened?

(As you can see, the meaning is the same whether you use the -di form or not in these examples. In other cases, it will depend.)

Herif bir aydir yok. / That guy hasn´t been around in a month.

Herif bir aydir yoktu, dun aradi. / That guy hadn´t been around for a month, but called me yesterday.

Kac aydir gormuyordum, dun yolda karsilastik. / I hadn´t seen him for months, and bumped into him on the street yesterday.

Kac aydir yoktu ortada, gecen gun pazarda karsilastik. / He hadn´t been around for months, and we bumped into each other at the market the other day.

Hep ariyorum. Aylardir acmiyor telefonunu. / I have been calling constantly. He hasn´t answered his phone in months.

Aylardan beri ariyorum ama hic cevap yok. / I have been calling for months now, but there is no answer.

"Turkiye´ye tatile üç hafta için gideceðim." You could certainly say it in that way. You could also say:

Turkiye´ye uc haftaligina tatile gidecegim. / I will be going for a three-week vacation to Turkey.

Uc haftaligina Turkiyeye gidecegim (gidiyorum). / I will be going to Turkey for 3 weeks.

Uc hafta Turkiye´de tatil yapacagim. / I will be taking a three week vacation in Turkey.

Uc hafta icin evde yokum. Turkiyede tatile gidiyorum. / I won´t be home for three week. I am taking a vacation in Turkey.

Uc hafta yokum. Tatile gidiyorum. / I am off for 3 weeks. I will be on vacation.

Kac haftaligina tatile gidiyorsun? Uc haftaligina or Uc hafta icin. / How many weeks are you taking off for vacation? Three weeks or for three weeks.

Kac hafta tatile gidiyorsun? / How many weeks are you taking off for vacation?

Uc hafta. / Three weeks.

Bu para kac gun icin yeter? / How many days would this money last (you).

Bir ay yeter. / It would last me a month.

I am assuming that hafta icin is easier to pronounce than the cumbersome haftaligina, but most people would use the haftaligina form, although both are correct.

Brilliant! I love it, thank you sooooooooooooooooooooo much.

I´m printing this right now, this is super helpful.

You can be a nice guy when you want to he he (just teasing).

XOX

This is also off topic but your example reminds me the similarity with another language

In Italiano --  da Roma a Istanbul

Türkçede -- Roma´dan Ýstanbul´a

Prepositions in Italian vs suffixes in Turkish. Suffixes are believed once were postpositions. Prepositions vs Postpositions are unified as adpositions in general linguistic anyway.

There is another one with exact meaning and usage

In Italiano --  ne Roma ne Istanbul

Türkçede -- ne Roma ne Istanbul

 Si++ non sapevo che parlassi italiano

I completely agree that there are rather strange similarities between Italian, Latin and Turkish. The "da" and the "ne" forms are certainly strange. I don"t think these are coincidental. I wonder who the real Trojans that built the city of Rome were. Could the Trojans refer to Turkhans? I am not supporting the Sun Theory, but there are far too many similarities between Latin and Turkish in certain ways.

Un po´.

I remember in a language related site, someone studying Turkish admitted that knowing classical Latin helped him very much learn Turkish.

Turkish and Latin are SOV languages. And Latin used postposition similar to Turkish. But modern Latin languages switched to prepositions.

We can see it in Spanish today for example in a strange way

cum = with in Latin

so

me cum = with me = benim ile

te cum = with you = senin ile

an in -cum didn´t disappeared in Spanish for the following though it switched to using prepositions

con migo = with me

con tigo = with you

This reminded me a myth about Mehmed II, its said that Mehmed II once visited Çanakkale in 1462 after the conquest of Ýstanbul and said to Akþemseddin "Now we had avenged the Trojans by the conquest of Ýstanbul." There are also rumours that Troy comes from the words "Tur(which is a general name for Turanian people, of course its related to religion of GökTanrý)" and "Öy(which means home in ancient Turkish)". Anyway in my opinion young Paris for sure had a Turkish gene which attracted beautiful Helen

Bir aydir yoksun ortada. Nerelerdesin? / It has been a month since you have been around

should it be it has been a month since you havent been araound??

It could mean both I think.

It has been a month since you have been around says you have not been around for a month. Most of my translations are somewhat vague and not really exact. I use them to convey the general meaning and try not to get the exact translation.

 It´s been a month since you haven´t been around means you have been here a month!

(thanks for great explanation of ´since´ cynicmystic - very clear and helpful)

should it be it has been a month since you havent been araound??  [end of quote]

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 tazx1>> says ...

I followed this string with interest ... but, I seek an explanation regarding ´YOKSUN´ > I learnet that ´-sin´ suffixed to a ´stem´ puts verb in an ´imperative mood´ eg., ol-sun, gel-sin, et-sin etc.

Prof. G.L.Lewis has this to say:-

>´There is also a 3rd Person imperative in -sin. this must not be confused with -sin ´thou art´ ...  which is attached to a ´tese-base NRVER TO A NAKED STEM!!!´<

So, ´yoksun´ ought to mean >> ´let it not exist´ >> Please enlighten me.  I place the intuition of a native speaker above and beyond any grammar book.

Tazx1 [over and out]<<<

Ý am studying beri now and i remember we have a thread about it

http://www.turkishclass.com/forumTitle_10114

Nice, thank you.