[Grammar] Present Perfect or Past Perfect

[JarekSteliga]

My pony died yesterday. I am today speaking to someone about this. Should I say,


"It has been living with us these past 4 years"

or

"It had been living with us these past 4 years"

Is the selection of tense here at all important/meaningful for a native speaker?

 

[emsr2d2]

You could only have said "He/she has been living with us for four years" while the pony was alive and still living with you.
Now that the pony has passed on, you need to use "He/she had been living with us for four years". You could also say "He/she had lived with us for four years" or "We had had her for four years".

Note that I used "He/she" in each example. We tend to refer to our pets using their sex, not as "it".