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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2 Answers
First sentence
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.
Second sentence
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.
- I used to hate black-eyed peas.
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.
