Hi JTX, 1. There's no big difference between "How long have you lived here?" (present perfect) and "How long have you been living here?"(present perfect continuous), because they refer to an action that started in the past and continues up to the present. There's no interruption. The second sentence gives more emphasis on the action. 2. "How long did you live there?" is simple past. That means the action is finished, the person no longer lives there. 3. You can use How long+present perfect/present perfect continuous with verbs such as live, work, study with little difference in meaning. 4. You can't use stative verbs (like, own, prefer, hate, love, ecc...) with present perfect continuous. I hope it helps

First, your question about past simple. If you use past simple, the entire time span will be in the past. They will live somewhere else now, and they will have stopped studying English. In general, use present perfect continuous for normal (dynamic) verbs I have been talking for 15 minutes. I have been walking for an hour. Use present perfect for stative verbs. I have loved her for 2 years. I have known that for 5 minutes. "live" and "study" can be treated as either stative or dynamic. They have different implications. I have lived in Atlanta for 5 years= this is part of my identity. I see myself as an Atlantan. I will probably die in Atlanta. I have been living in Atlanta for 5 years= I live there now, but I am not tied to the city. I might move somewhere else next year. I have studied English for 5 years= I will probably continue studying English for the rest of my life. I have been studying English for 5 years= this is my current project. Next year, I might start studying French instead.

Hi JTX, Remember that Present Perfect forms cover the past, up to the present moment. Past forms are history, and not connected to now. Yes, you can use past tense when you ask "how long?", but that time period ended in the past. "To live" is one of those verbs that can fit Present Perfect Simple and Present Pefect Continuous, so it's not a very good example when you want to understand the difference. When we want to focus on the time period (to now) or the activity, we use "have been [verb]ing". So, "How long have you been studying English?" makes more sense to me.