Question about the present perfect, and past tense rule.

[Aikuzo]

Present Perfect rule: It is incorrect to use the present simple/continous to describe duration.

E.g.
- I live in sabadell for eight years (wrong)
- I'm living here for eight years (wrong)

But can I use duration in tha past simple/continous?
- I lived in sabadell for eight years. (correct?)
- I was living here for eight years. (correct?)
_________________
I quit studying English years ago and have just come back to study the basics.

[Cerberus™]

[Alan]

Hi Aikuzo,

Another point to make is that one of the characteristics of the Past Continuous (I was living here) is that it is often used as a 'background' tense and in that function it anticipates what happens next or indicates that there will be some kind of interruption. Your sentence:

[Natol]

can you explain me the difference between present perfect and present perfect continous.
and the difference between past perfect and past perfect continous.i hardly understand when to use them.please.

[Ctnsite]

We use 'past perfect' to express something that had finished at the concerned moment while with 'past continuous', we want to tell something that had started but not finished yet.
It's just my opinion. I don't remember the rules exactly.