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When someone says

"I have lived in this house."

and finishes the sentence right there, does it mean they still live in that house or do we need more context to know that?

What if the sentence is

"I have lived here for 10 years / since 10 years ago."?

Does this remove all the doubt and clearly imply that the person is still living in that house?

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  • This question would be more suited to the English Language Learners forum. Without a time period being stated, the sentence is unidiomatic and does not imply that the speaker still lives there. For ten years and since 2011 both imply that they still do.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Mar 2, 2021 at 9:15
  • "I have lived in this house" and "I lived in this house" both imply that you no longer live there: if you still live there, you would say "I live in this house". If you want to say how long you have lived in a place you still live in, you would say "I have lived here for 10 years" ("since ten years ago" is also valid but less common). This is all basic stuff for English learners. NB: To remove all doubt you should say "and still live here" or something similar, because it's possible to say "I have lived here for ten years" when you've just moved out.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Mar 2, 2021 at 10:58
  • @StuartF Thanks. But what if you're an old man visiting your childhood house? Wouldn't it make sense to say "I have lived in this house for ten years"? To me this means "I have had the experience of living in this house for 10 years in the past - from age 1 to 10." Am I wrong?
    – Askeladd
    Commented Mar 2, 2021 at 11:05
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    In the case of visiting an old home you would normally use the simple past tense and say "I lived in this house for ten years". If you're just describing past events you use the past tense.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Mar 2, 2021 at 11:09

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