I used to live in the US for a year before I became a teacher.
I had been living in the US for a year before I became a teacher.
Is there any difference between the two?
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I used to live in the US for a year before I became a teacher.
The expression used to describes a situation that no longer exists, or ceased to exist at some specified time. In this case, it means that the speaker moved to the US, lived there for a year, moved away from the US and then (probably straight afterwards) became a teacher.
I had been living in the US for a year before I became a teacher.
This sentence does not feel quite natural because both the past perfect had been and the conjunction before indicate that something occurred before something else: in addition, for a year specifies a time interval. That sounds like it ought to define quite a complex sequence of events.
It could be made more natural by eliminating one of the before-indicators, like this:
I was living in the US for a year before I became a teacher.
This sentence describes a situation where the speaker moved to the US, lived there for a year and (probably directly after that year) became a teacher.
I had been living in the US for a year when I became a teacher.
This sentence describes a situation where the speaker moved to the US, lived there for a year and directly after that year became a teacher.
Alternatively, you could eliminate the time interval specifier, like this:
I had been living in the US before I became a teacher.
This sentence describes a situation where the speaker moved to the US and stayed there for a while, but left some time before becoming a teacher.
Yes, the two sentences mean different things. The first is hard to parse.
I used to live in the US for a year before I became a teacher.
Saying "used to [do something]" means that whatever you used to do, you don't do anymore.
Unstated, but part of the meaning, is that you like them now. So saying "I used to live in the US for a year" means that you don't live there any more, but you were there for a year. Ending the sentence with "before I became a teacher" does not fit with the rest of the flow of the sentence. My guess at the meaning would be that you are a teacher now, somewhere other than the US, but you did happen to live in the US for a year prior to being a teacher.
I had been living in the US for a year before I became a teacher.
This second sentence sounds normal to this native speaker. It means that you are a teacher now, most likely in the US, and you were in the US a year before becoming a teacher. I should rephrase that. Technically, it is not necessarily saying you are a teacher now. At a minimum you had been a teacher, and before that you had been in the US for a year.