"I've been living" vs "I've lived"

[sara88]

Hi again
1)I've been living in this old house for six years.
2)I've lived in this old house for six years.
The two sentences are diffrent, so they mean:
1) I'm still living in it.
2) I'm not living in it anymore.
Is that right!!!

[2006]

Hi again
1)I've been living in this old house for six years.
2)I've lived in this old house for six years.
The two sentences are diffrent, so they mean:
1) I'm still living in it.
2) I'm not living in it anymore.
Is that right!!! No. Both sentences mean you are still living in it. 'I lived in.....' would mean that you're not living in it any more.

2006

[rj1948]

Hi again
1)I've been living in this old house for six years.
2)I've lived in this old house for six years.
The two sentences are diffrent, so they mean:
1) I'm still living in it.
2) I'm not living in it anymore.
Is that right!!!

I have lived here for six months-present perfect.
This may mean 'you are living in this house noe or you may not.
Present perfect indicates a past action;a completed past action related to the present.
I have completed my English homework and I'm yet to complete my science homework.The action is complete.
I have studied Shakespeare.You are not studying now.
Present perfect focuses more on results and effects.
Ihave been living in this old house for six years -present perfect continuous
You are living in this house now.
Present perfect cntinuous suggests an action started in the past and not yet completed.The stress is on the continuous and on going activity.
This is followed by 'for' or 'since'.
The following sentences will be of help to differentiate.
Where are the cookies?
I have eaten all.there arn't any.
Ihave been eating these cookies.Here are some.

Regards,
rj1948

[David L.]

1)I've been living in this old house for six years.
2)I've lived in this old house for six years.

Let's take (2) first. This is present perfect tense. It means that 6 years ago, you moved into, started living in the house; and you have lived there from that moment, right up to this moment.STOP. (You might intend to keep on living there; or you could be saying this as you stand on the doorstep, taking one last look back, as you leave to move elsewhere. It refers to a period of time between some past moment, and this present moment.)

I've been living in this old house for six years.


This is present perfect continous. It has the same meaning as I outlined with present perfect above PLUS it indicates that you will continue to do so indefinitely/to some unstated time in the future.

So:
"I have lived in this house for 6 years and been very happy here. I'm sorry to be leaving."
or
I have lived in this house for 6 years and hope to live here for another 60 years." - The first part of the sentence merely brings it up to the present moment, and it is the second part of the sentence which tells us about the future, that I intend to continue to live there - the tense itself does not do that.

compare:
"I have been living in this house for 6 years and so I have tenant's rights - no landlord is kicking me out!" - As at this moment, I have been here 6 years and expected that to continue...but this whole process of my continued living in the house has been threatened by the landlord who wants to evict me.

"Waiter! I've been waiting 30 minutes." - I am pointing out that as of this moment, I have waited 30 minutes PLUS that I am still waiting, and that unless I am served now or soon, it's seems like I'm going to be left here to wait and wait till I walk out in disgust. It links past, present, and future.

If you're still not sure, Sara88, say so.

[sara88]

Thanks a lot everyone who tried their best to help me. I'm really grateful.
I guess by David l post, it makes it more clear to me.
As a conclusion from your explanation David:
With the present perfect only in the sentence, like the one I provided above, we are more likely to understand that the action is already finished. But when the speaker adds some more details which show that he is intended to continue his action, we can say that the sentence in general contains a continuous action.
Am I right!!
The present perfect continious is easier.

[venkatasu]

I have lived here for six months-present perfect.
This may mean 'you are living in this house noe or you may not.
Present perfect indicates a past action;a completed past action related to the present.
I have completed my English homework and I'm yet to complete my science homework.The action is complete.
I have studied Shakespeare.You are not studying now.
Present perfect focuses more on results and effects.
Ihave been living in this old house for six years -present perfect continuous
You are living in this house now.
Present perfect cntinuous suggests an action started in the past and not yet completed.The stress is on the continuous and on going activity.
This is followed by 'for' or 'since'.
The following sentences will be of help to differentiate.
Where are the cookies?
I have eaten all.there arn't any.
Ihave been eating these cookies.Here are some.

Regards,
rj1948

Thank you rj1948. What does 1948 means? Thanks a lot to David L even though he doesn't answer my threads. Till r u anger David L?

[riverkid]

1)I've been living in this old house for six years.
2)I've lived in this old house for six years.

Let's take (2) first. This is present perfect tense. It means that 6 years ago, you moved into, started living in the house; and you have lived there from that moment, right up to this moment.STOP. (You might intend to keep on living there; or you could be saying this as you stand on the doorstep, taking one last look back, as you leave to move elsewhere. It refers to a period of time between some past moment, and this present moment.)

David's right here. Because of the adverbial phrase, "for six years", there is an implication is that the person still lives in the house.

But as David says, he may not. I'll borrow David's scenario, if I may;

... you could be saying this as you stand on the doorstep, taking one last look back, as you leave to move elsewhere.

Here we have the present perfect of current relevance/recently finished event/importance added to a finished action. The speaker could in this case, use the simple past though for BrE the likelihood is that the present perfect will be used.

For NaE speakers, the choice between the past simple or the present perfect is more a question of how much importance they want to place upon the action.

Now let's look at another scenario. That same man, 6 years down the road, married, walking with his wife and child go thru this neighborhood.

Husband: [looking at the house] I've lived in this house.

Wife: Really Dear, when was that?

This is the present perfect of experience. The wife, being his wife, knows that this doesn't represent a situation that is "up to now". But other ENLs who don't know him and hear his remark would almost certainly take it to be an expression of a past experience.


I've been living in this old house for six years.


This is present perfect continous. It has the same meaning as I outlined with present perfect above PLUS it indicates that you will continue to do so indefinitely/to some unstated time in the future.

Here, I'm afraid that I must disagree with David. As it stands, above, it could mean the same thing as the present perfect simple and it could be used by the same speaker in David's scenario where he's standing on the porch, having given up the keys.

"I've been living in this house for six years and i'm sure gonna miss it, but it's time to move on and up."

Husband: What have you been doing all afternoon, Honey?

Wife: I've been scrubbing that porch floor. It was so badly stained.

Husband: Are you all done.

Wife: Yup, I finished a couple of hours ago.

[riverkid]

Hello Venkatasu and RJ. I've added some of my comments, in purple, to your comments. Please review them. I think they help to sort out the different uses of the present perfect.

Originally Posted by rj1948 View Post
I have lived here for six months-present perfect.
This may mean 'you are living in this house now or you may not.

True.

Present perfect can indicate a past action;a completed past action related to the present.

I have completed my English homework and I'm yet to complete my science homework.The action is complete.

The verb 'complete', by its nature, [it doesn't hold a durative meaning] tells us that this is a finished action.

??I have completed my homework for six years.??

I have completed my homework as given by the teacher, each and every time, over the last six years. [the PP of current relevance/importance to now]


I have studied Shakespeare.You are not studying now.

As a standalone sentence, it pretty much means that the person is not studying now.

Present perfect in one of its uses, the present perfect of current relevance/adding importance to finished actions/hot news focuses more on results and effects.

I have been living in this old house for six years -present perfect continuous
You are living in this house now.

Not necessarily so.

Present perfect continuous suggests an action started in the past and not yet completed.The stress is on the continuous and on going activity.

The operative word is 'suggests', but not all uses of the present perfect continuous tell of an action that continues to the present. A finished action that was/is durative in nature can be discussed when it's finished, as a present perfect continuous denoting current relevance/importance.

This is followed by 'for' or 'since'.

The following sentences will be of help to differentiate.
#1
A: Where are the cookies?
B: I have eaten them all. There aren't any left.

#2
A: Where are the cookies?
B: [points] I have been eating these cookies. Here are some.

In #2, because there are still cookies present, it points towards a continuing action. BUT B may have actually stopped some time ago, say two hours prior. At that time, B could well have intended to stop completely and may have stopped, as I noted, because B felt that he/she should leave some for A.

The choice to use the continuous comes because the action was of a durative nature, a munching on one cookie after another, with differing time breaks between each cookie.

#3
A: Where are the cookies? My cookies.
B: I have been eating my cookies. [points] Here's yours.

Here, it's possible that B ate all B's cookies; in this case, it could hardly represent a continuation.


Regards,
rj1948

[2006]

I should have prefaced my remarks with a "without context" comment. But even so, "I've been living..." and "I've lived..." are usually used when one wants to mean 'still living'. Otherwise one should just say "I lived...'.

Of course, by adding special context one can make the situation a lot more complicated.

One cause of confusion, at least in my opinion, is that people often use perfect tense when simple past would be perfectly adequate, and this can really make for a complicated and confuing situation.

[riverkid]

I should have prefaced my remarks with a "without context" comment. But even so, "I've been living..." and "I've lived..." are usually used when one wants to mean 'still living'. Otherwise one should just say "I lived...'.

Of course, by adding special context one can make the situation a lot more complicated.

One cause of confusion, at least in my opinion, is that people often use perfect tense when simple past would be perfectly adequate, and this can really make for a complicated and confusing situation.

Good afternoon, 2006.

Those "people" are to a large extent, BrE speakers. NaE speakers, by and large, do use the simple past for a good number of these situations.

I really don't believe that these situations, when there is a context, which is what real life provides, makes for any confusion. Further comments, more adverbial adjuncts, or shared knowledge plus ... make confusion virtually nonexistent.

But these errant ideas that have been floating around for years cause no end of confusion for ESLs. We see it here time and again. And just after it's explained to one group of ESL,s another group comes along asking about the same "problems".

We have to get ESLs looking at how each aspect of the present perfect works. We have to get them to try to discern which one is being used in the examples they cite in order for them to grasp that there isn't a one size fits all present perfect.