from
prep.used to show where something starts or where it comes from. You use it for places, times, or the beginning of a range.
prep.indicating the point in space, time, or scale at which a logical sequence, motion, or amount begins.
“The train travels from London to Paris.”
“The shop is open from nine in the morning until six in the evening every weekday.”
“The data set includes results from a wide variety of sources, ranging from small local surveys to large international studies conducted over several decades.”
Commonly paired with 'to' or 'until' to define a range or duration.
from vs since — Since marks the start of a period that continues until now, while from marks a starting point without implying the action is still happening.
Learners often translate directly from their native language and use 'from' with 'depend', but the correct preposition is 'on'.
Usage calculate from · derive from · distinct from
From Middle English from (“from”), from Old English from, fram (“forward, from”), from Proto-West Germanic fram, from Proto-Germanic fram (“forward, from, away”). Cognate with Old Saxon fram (“from”) and Old High German fram (“from”), Danish frem (“forth, forward”), Danish fra (“from”), Swedish fram (“forth, forward”), Swedish från (“from”), Norwegian Nynorsk fram (“forward”), Norwegian Nynorsk frå (“from”), Icelandic fram (“forward, on”), Icelandic frá (“from”), Albanian pre, prej. More at fro.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
For Mandarin speakers Mandarin indicates source or starting points using the coverb 从 (cóng) which is placed before the main verb. Because of this word order, learners often produce structures like 'I from London come' (我从伦敦来 wǒ cóng Lúndūn lái) instead of placing the prepositional phrase after the verb.
The Mandarin structure 离 (lí)... 远 (yuǎn) is used to express distance from a point, leading learners to say 'My home is far away to the school' or 'far away away from' rather than the standard 'far from'.
For Japanese speakers Japanese marks the source or starting point with the postpositional particle 'から (kara)'. Because Japanese is a head-final language, learners often place the preposition after the noun, producing 'Tokyo from' instead of 'from Tokyo'.
The Japanese expression 'ここから (koko kara)' is often used to mean 'from now on' or 'starting now'. This leads learners to produce 'from here' when they intend to refer to a starting point in time rather than a physical location.