How to express our experience of duration

Question

I'd like to know how to express our experience of duration in English?

1.I lived in Canada for five years.Now this is only experience that I lived in a foreign country.

Is it possible to express this content in one sentence using the Present Perfect?

EngJack · Accepted Answer

duration of experience, I think.

Present perfect tense for that first sentence would be "I have lived in Canada for five years." That tense is used here to say that you are still living in Canada. "I lived in Canada for five years." is past tense.

I'm struggling with putting those two thoughts into one sentence using present perfect. Try "My only experience living in a foreign country has been living in Canada for five years."

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks,Mr.EJ!
The sentence you gave implies experience? or express duration and experience both?
Probably,it is hard to express duration and experience using the Present Perfect.

So,I made up a sentence below.

"I have experience that I lived in Canada for five years."

How about this? Does it work?

EngJack · Answer

If you modify the sentence, it can work.

Which experience? Unless the context is clear, say "experience living in other countries". And let's fix the clause that explains how you have experience.

"I have experience living in other countries from living in Canada for five years."
or
"I have experience living in other countries in that I have lived in Canada for five years."

The second sentence is more unwieldy, but it works. The first one is much smoother. It would be even smoother (to me) if you replaced the second living with a synonym, like residing. And the sentence in my previous post communicates the same thing. I hope that helps!

How to express our experience of duration

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