I got quite lucky to have just found
this video. This man uses the present perfect (simple) with duration (with an action verb) instead of the present perfect continuous. To me, it actually makes sense (to some extent) because when native speakers say how long one's journey of learning a language lasted they use the simple aspect, e.g., "My grandma learned French for over thirty years".
There's one very important point that he hints at but for some reason doesn't develop, which is the idea that verbs such as live, work, study, teach, speak can be used with a stative sense as well as an active sense.
I don't quite understand this, to be honest. I mean, native speakers mostly use the past simple when talking about duration in the past, but at the same time, although they do sometimes use the past continuous with duration, their choice of the aspect, simple or continuous, does not depend on the type of verb, active or stative. For example,
"wait" is an action verb, but even English Grammar in Use says that in the past it could be either, "We waited for an hour" or "We were waiting for an hour", making simple the default option.
Unit 14, B.
So why necessarily use the continuous when it's perfect, but at the same time use the simple when it's in the past (even with action verbs)
?
I would say that it's different with the perfect tenses because the action is still going on,
but you, members of this forum, yourselves have said that no matter if it's the present perfect (simple) or the present perfect continuous, as long as we add a duration phrase (for [an amount of time]) or (since [a point in time]), whether the action is finished or still going on is clear only by the context, not by the choice of the aspect (simple or continuous). So for me, it's either use the continuous with action verbs (and duration) even in the past, or just don't say that with action verbs (and duration), we need the perfect continuous, not the perfect simple.
I'll try to explain what I mean in simplier words. Let's say I told my friend that it's more common to say "We've been waiting for an hour" than "We've waited for an hour" since
"wait" is an action verb. She understood and then only used, "We were waiting for an hour" when talking about the past. I asked her, "Why did you use the past continuous?" and she said, "Because it's an action verb, and you, yourself, taught me this way".