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Past/PresentPerfect/PastPerfect?
I'm an ESL from Japan.
I kind of know Past tense and Present and Past perfect .
Which is the best(natural) and wrong as follows? If it is not the same in British or American, pls tell me.
I guess 3 is the best 2 is wrong. 1 is ok but not natural. Am I correct?
Now: Y2020
1.
I had lived in N.Y for 3 years from 2015 to 2018.
2. I lived in N.Y for 3 years from 2015 to 2018.
3. I had been living in N.Y 3 years from 2015 to 2018.
1 Answer
- CraigLv 612 months ago
If you were just recounting all the places you've lived, you would use 2).
If you were in 2020, telling a story that began to take place in 2018, you would say "I HAD BEEN living in New York for three years in 2018, when..."
If you were in 2020, explaining why you corrected someone else in a story you were recounting, you would say "...he said there's no subway stops for miles from where he was on Flatbush, but I told him he was wrong - because I HAD LIVED in New York for three years - from 2015 to 2018!" (Many people would just say "because I lived".)
But this is sort of a specialized case (due to you having included the date intervals).
Normally, the breakdown is:
a) lived - in the past, with no reference to any other event at any other point in time.
b) had lived - speaking from a perspective in the past, about a preceding, COMPLETED event...(it was already over by then).
c) had been living - speaking from a perspective in the past about an event that began earlier but was STILL CONTINUING, or had just ended. This is usually used as a scene-setter for a story that begins from that perspective in the past and takes place after it, or is used within that story to explain or justify, based on the deeper past, prior to the story's start.
I hope that helps.
