What is the difference between the following two sentences?

I have lived in this apartment for 3 years.
I have been living in this apartment for 3 years.

Thank you.

The difference between the two forms have lived and have been living is one of aspect--the way the speaker or writer views the idea.

With the present perfect, "I have lived," the speaker sees the idea of living in the apartment as something more or less permanent. Here is an example of the present perfect have lived followed by an appropriate comment:

1) I've lived in this apartment for three years, but I still haven't unpacked all my boxes. It will be nice when the place is finally organized.

In 1) the apartment is seen as the speaker's place of residence.

With the present perfect continuous "I have been living" the speaker sees the living as temporary. It can be illustrated by the following:

2) I've been living in this apartment for three years, but the owner is moving back in a couple of months. It was nice to be here, and I just hope I can find something as comfortable.

In 2) the occupancy of the apartment is seen as temporary.

This difference in aspect applies to other tenses as well. It can be seen in the following exchange between new students at a university:

A: Hello, I saw you at the orientation meeting. Are you living by any chance in Ross Hall? That's my dorm.

B: No, I'm living in Stevens Hall. I'm from Venezuela. Where do you live?

A: In Ecuador, although my parents aren't there right now. They're living in Australia for this year.

Marilyn Martin

Is there anywhere the assumption that the progressive version is continuous (with no interruptions say in living at that address), while the other may have been on and off?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Marius Hancu,

That's a great question, Jerry.

When dealing with a verb like live, we can't make that assumption. In fact, with such a verb, just about everyone, I imagine, would assume that the person has lived there without interruption for the three years.

With other kinds of verbs, like receive, we know there have been interruptions:

I have received raises since I started working here.

It's understood that such an action can't be continuous. So it all comes down to the type of verb in the sentence.

Richard

Depending on the rest of the sentence, and the time words, many verbs can be completely continuous -- no interruptions -- and the same verbs can mean the activity has been interrupted.

For example:

"He's been playing tennis all morning" means that the action of tennis has been going on without stopping.

"He's been playing tennis since he was four years old" means that he has been playing tennis regularly, but obviously not without stopping.

You can do the same with "receive":

"He has already received payment," or "He has received three pay raises so far" are not continuous actions, but repeated actions.

But you could say, "He has been receiving payments from the government for forty years, since he was wounded in the war."
_______

So, as Richard says, whether or not the verb can be used to express an activity that never stops depends on what the verb is. I think, though, that in addition to that, many verbs (not all-- for example "arrive" can't be used in the present perfect progressive) are used in the present perfect progressive sometimes to show a totally uninterrupted action, and sometimes to show a repeated habitual action over a long period of time.

Rachel

Thank you, Richard and Rachel.

1. It is snowing again.

2. It's been snowing again.

3. It's snowed again.

What's the difference in meaning between the above three sentences?

Here are my interpretations:

1. right now

2 & 3. Using the present perfect progressive or present perfect in this context really conveys very little difference. Perhaps there's a slight difference in the emphasis, with the progressive form communicating that we've had lots of snowfalls this season.

One other point is that if we use the present perfect progressive, when looking out the window we can see just a few final snowflakes coming down from the sky, whereas nothing more will be coming down if we use just the present perfect.

Richard