6 French Expressions to say “it’s been ages”.

LONGTEMPS - it’s such an easy word to remember.  So why not use it all over the place? 

I would say it’s nice to have a word handy when you want instant recall, but surely you also want to learn new words, too.  

So here you are - the French way to say “ages” or “longtemps” instead of just translating all the time.

Go on - you know you want to learn more French! 

In this mini-lesson, you’ll discover:

• How to say ‘it’s been AGES’
• Synonyms of ‘ages’
• ‘AGES’ in context 

How to translate “It’s been ages” in French.

Let’s start with the direct translation of “it’s been ages”. The “official” one is “ça fait longtemps”. As a reminder, the French word “longtemps” means long time. Ignore the last 2 letters when you say it.

Here’s an example for you:

• Ça fait longtemps que je ne t’ai pas vu >>> It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you.

Have you noticed how the French version prefers the negative form? In case you don’t master the negative structures in French yet, this video   will help you:

An informal expression to say “It’s been ages” in French.

Time to play with other versions of “it’s been ages” in French. Let’s go less and less formal…

An equivalent of “a long time” is “an eternity”. This is why you could also come across the expression of “ça fait une éternité”.

It would like the following:

• Ça fait une éternité que je ne t’ai pas vue >>> It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you.

Note that for the use of the passé composé, an extra “e” is required for the feminine (and an “s” for the plural)  if the object is before your verb. Not sure how to do it? This video will guide you. 

One fun way to express “It’s been ages” in French.

A synonym of “a long time” is “a while”, which is translated in French as “Ça fait un bon moment”.

And a way to do it is like this:

• Ça fait un bon moment que je ne t’ai pas vu >>> It’s been a while since I saw you.

Have you noticed that the tense is different in English while it remains the same in French?

An informal expression for “It’s been ages” in French.

Now, it’s getting more informal. The expression with “lustres” refers to a chandelier with the idea that it gets dusty with time. Therefore when you say “Ça fait des lustres”, you imply a long time…

Here’s a sentence with this expression:

• Ça fait des lustres que je ne t’ai pas vue >>> It’s been ages since I’ve seen you.

Have you ever heard this way to say “It’s been ages” in French?

Do you want to exaggerate? You can by saying “a crazy time” for “ages”. In French, the result will be: “ça fait un temps fou”.

In a typical sentence, you would have:

• Ça fait un temps fou que je ne vous ai pas vus >>> It’s been ages since I’ve seen you.

Remember to put the pronoun (tu / t’ / lui / vous…) before your verb in French. 

A colloquial translation of “It’s been ages” in French.

One last option for you to translate “it’s been a while” is  “ça fait un bail”. This very common expression is rather used a lot and you should know it. You can’t translate it. Simply know that “un bail” means a long time.

Here is how you can apply it:

• Ça fait un bail que je ne t’ai pas vu >>> It’s been a while since I saw you.

How to talk about a specific length of time in French without seeing someone.

So at this stage, you’ve learnt how to translate “it’s been ages” in French. But let’s imagine that you want to be specific about the duration of time. Well, it’s quite easy as long as you know the words in French. Replace the “ages” in your sentences and put what you want instead and voilà!

• une heure >>> an hour
• un jour entier >>> a day
• une semaine >>> a week
• un mois >>> a month

• des mois >>> months

• une année >>> a year
• des années >>> years
• des siècles >>> centuries

So, the basic structure is: 

• Ça fait (the duration you want) que je ne t’ai pas vu >>> It’s been (the duration you want) since I saw you.

In conclusion, you have discovered various expressions in order to translate the vague expression of “it’s been ages”. In addition, you saw how to use the same structure with a specific duration of time.

I really hope you got something from this mini-lesson and you feel ready to put it into practice. Should you have any doubts, don't hesitate to contact me.

I am only too happy to help.