What is the difference between the followings?
A. I have been living here for 5 years.
B. I have lived here for 5 years.
Am I correct that these two represent the same event, but A emphasizes the continuity of living while B simply states a fact that you lived there from 5 years ago to the present?
Is it true that the difference in present perfect and present perfect continuous is whether a speaker intends to emphasize continuity or a fact?
Best Answer
The difference between your two examples isn’t great, but, depending on context, A might give a slightly stronger impression than B that the speaker will continue to live there.
The difference is more apparent in a pair such as:
The first suggests that the speaker is still reading it, whereas the second suggests that the reader has finished it.