て以来|ていらい
Means 'ever since (doing)'. It marks a past action or event as a starting point, and the main clause describes a state, change, or situation that has held from then on, usually up to the present, or up to a later endpoint given with まで.
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Slightly formal but common in both speech and writing. Typical starting points are events such as starting to study, joining a company, moving, falling ill, or even waking up, since the period need not be long. てから can also express a situation continuing from a point (日本に来てからずっと…), but て以来 is more formal and specifically highlights the whole period since the starting point.
Do not follow て以来 with an ordinary one-off action; use てから, unless it is a first occurrence since then (日本に来て以来、初めて富士山を見た).
Note that the て-clause must be a past event; て以来 cannot introduce a future starting point.
Do not attach 以来 to the dictionary or た form of a verb; use the て form (来て以来, not 来る以来 or 来た以来).
- てからというものN1「てからというもの」attaches only to the て-form of verbs (there is also the conjunction 「それからというもの」). It carries a stronger emotional tone, highlighting how 'everything has completely changed since then,' and when describing a continuing state it can often be swapped with 「て以来」.
- てからN5Besides meaning 'since,' 「てから」 can also express the order in which things happen. In the 'since' sense the two are often interchangeable, but 「てから」 is stylistically neutral, attaches only to the て-form, and is the only option when a single event occurs right at the starting point.
- 〜たきりN3「たきり」attaches only to the た-form of verbs and is stylistically neutral; it stresses that nothing further came after an event, so the second clause is usually negative and it cannot introduce a positive change. When the second clause is negative it is close to 「て以来」 and often replaceable, though it carries a stronger nuance of regret.
- つつあるN2「つつある」attaches to the ます-stem (the ます-form with ます removed) and only describes a change that is gradually progressing but not yet complete, without stating a starting point; 「て以来」 takes a past event as its starting point and describes the whole situation from then until now. Both lean toward written style, but they cannot be interchanged.
てから covers both simple sequence ('after doing') and 'since', while て以来 means only 'since'. てからというもの is a more literary N1 form that stresses a marked change since the event, 〜たきり means nothing further happened or the state stayed unchanged after that point, and つつある describes a change currently in progress rather than a period measured from a starting point.
