Previously, I asked the question about words of place where one was born but not raised. In the question, I wrote:
I know a girl who was born in Melbourne but she was raised in Japan. Then she moved to China and had been living there for a few years.
Because the girl no longer lives in China but she used to live in China, so I wrote "She had been living there for a few years".
I had been thinking for a while whether I should write "she was living in China for a few years, or she had been living in China for a few years", because our non-native English teacher used to tell us that, "Both present and past perfect continuous tenses must be followed by the preposition "for." I followed her rule, and I chose to write "she had been living there for a few years".
But I am so confused now.
Is it wrong to use the preposition "for" in this past continuous tense:
She was living in China for a few years.
Thank you.
Best Answer
Past continuous tense expresses that an action happened over a period of time. A for preposition will tell how long. It's perfectly valid.
Comparing it with present continuous tense, present continuous in English is a bit weird, because it can be connected to an understood "shortly before and after now" period of time.
This means right now, you are on your way to the store (e.g. you have just left, or you are literally walking out the door to go to the store now). It can also mean you are about to go to the store in the very next moment.
Simple present in English sounds like you are narrating actions as they happen, and sounds awkward if not in such a context.
You can qualify present continuous with for like past continuous. If you do this, you are usually saying how long something will be happening, or is expected to happen. It will mean a future time even though the tense is a present tense.