[details=“English Translation”]Since he is old, this task must be difficult for him.[/details] This sentence doesn’t read right to me. The English word “since” has two meanings: 1-dating back to an earlier time, 2-becasue. In the first instance, the earlier time always follows (since last night, since I was a kid, since 1989). “Da quando” in all the instances I’ve seen it, carries this second meaning and the earlier time is always referenced (da quando siamo arrivati, da quando ero piccolo, da quando sono nato). Since the verb in this sentence is in the present tense and since there is nothing that comes after being old, it seems the word should be either “siccome” or “dato che.” or just “perché.” Am I missing something?
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Ciaob @hab638 I totally agree with you, I had to read this several times before I realised the problem. “Da quando” in this instance feels very wrong, “Da quando è diventato vecchio” would be better but as it stands now I would simply use “Perché”.
A dopo…
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“Da quando” can only be used in sense 2 (of “since when”).
Maybe it would be more proper to say " Da quando è diventato vecchio" but it does not sound wrong even as it is. But surely the meaning does not match the English version.
Looking at the Tatoeba sentence, it looks that someone misinterpreted the English sentence, and used the wrong translation for the meaning. Any of @hab638 suggested translations would do.
You can add “Poiché” and “Dal momento che” to possible translations of of “Since” in sense 1 above.
Actually, it is a bit odd that “Dal momento che…” (Literally “since the moment that…”) can be used as “Because” and “Da quando” cannot, but that’s Italian for you!
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Tatoeba is not my favorite site, as it doesn’t seem to have as much oversight as maybe it should. Since the original sentence appears to be in English, it would seem that we could rightly report this to Clozemaster as an error on the part of the Tatoeba translator, which I’ve done. Note also that in Tatoeba, there are two Italian translations, the second of which employs “siccome.” Thanks to both of you for reacting so quickly.
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That’s actually me, I added the translation yesterday (and added comment on the wrong one).
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