I am taking a Mooc on grammar and punctuation on Coursera, and have been asked a question during a lecture:
Do these two sentences have similar meaning or different meaning?
Julie has studied French for two years.
Julie has been studying French for two years.
I thought the answer was : different meaning. In the first case, Julie has studied French for two years, but may not be studying it still. In the second case, if she has been studying for two years, it means that she is still studying it.
Weel, the answer was that the two sentences had the same meaning. It was not an error of correction in the quizz, as the teacher later explained:
These two sentences have pretty much the same meaning. A lot of times present perfect and present perfect progressive have the same meaning and can both be used.
And continued with:
Here is some other examples where the two sentences have about the same meaning.
Bart has lived in Ireland for two years.
Bart has been living in Ireland for two years.
Sofia has worked at Apple for four months.
Sofia has been working at Apple for four months.
Can someone explain this to me? Thank you!