Confused again

Question

the sentences: i have worked here for five years  i have been working here for five years. you would say both sentences are ok. but the difference .........must be

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

The first stresses the accomplishment; the second stresses the activity.
The second emphasizes the speaker's relative psychological involvement in the experience.

Have a look at California Jim's response when you "I was meeting thousands..." vs "I met thousands...".

CalifJim · Answer

You've selected a verb ('to work') for which the difference between the present perfect and the present perfect continuous is practically insignificant. There are other verbs for which one of these is possible, and the other, anomalous. For these, it may be easier to understand the difference between these tenses.

Emergency room attendant to a patient who has been waiting for a long time:

Don't worry. I haven't forgotten you.

Don't worry. I haven't been forgetting you.

Verbs which denote an event which happens at a point in time (like "forget") do not take the present perfect progressive without a change in meaning. "have(n't) been forgetting" denotes multiple acts of forgetting, so it is inappropriate in the context presented in the example above. However, you can say:

I've been forgetting the rules of English grammar lately.

Similarly, (surprisingly?), the continuous aspect is incompatible with 'number of times'.

I've won the lottery three times.

I've been winning the lottery three times.

But: I've been winning the lottery regularly ever since I began to play.

Verbs which denote activities are more suited to the continuous aspect, but appear in the non-continuous to project the idea of an accomplishment (as Mr. M. has pointed out.) You might call this non-continuous form the "resume tense" because it has the ring of a statement you could put on a resume. The difference is sometimes minimal, as we saw earlier with "to work".

Lenny has been playing baseball professionally for three years.

Lenny has played baseball professionally for three years.

("resume tense")

Don't forget that some verbs cannot be used at all in the continuous tenses.

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