How to say lived vs. have been living somewhere?

Question

I want to say

1) "I lived in Beijing for six months."

As in, I was there last year for six months but I am not living there anymore.

Furthermore, how can I distinguish it from

2) "I have been living in Beijing for six months."?

I am sure the secret lies in 了.

My answers (which I hope you can correct/confirm):

1. 我在北京住了六个月
2. 我住在北京六个月

I'd appreciate any help!

Answer 1

I would say, as a Chinese, that Chinese language doesn't express tenses as explicitly and clearly as English does in most cases. Your translation of the first sentence(我在北京住了六个月) can be taken in both ways, in which case we figure out the tense by context. Past tense would be a better guess, though.

To remove uncertainties, you can say:

我在北京住过六个月。I lived in Beijing for six months.

我在北京住了六个月了。I have been living in Beijing for six months.

Or for added clarity:

我曾在北京住过六个月。I once lived in Beijing for six months.

我已经在北京住了六个月了。I have been living in Beijing for six months already.

Answer 2

（１）我在北京住过6个月。我在北京住了六个月 seems ok too （２）我已经在北京住了6个月。

as regards word order if 在 follows 住：

我（已经）住在了北京（６个月）

In fact 在了 seems to be a familiar sequence，also one can find example sentences online with 住在了，iciba immediately produces ３ of them， here is the first： 当他年老的时候他住在了一个群岛上, 远离这里.

In case 了 is replaced by 过，it seems the corresponding word order has to be

我住过在北京。

There are examples of this on the web （although apparently not in iciba）：住过在大学城，有人住过 在Imerovigli的Shine Hotel吗？

Answer 3

I am just trying to express in a natural way, I cannot tell you exactly why but it is what I have found:

1. 我在北京住过半年。

2. (最近)我刚在北京住满半年。/我才在北京住了半年。

I have just lived in Beijing for 6 months (and it is so short, compared to what I expected.)

(have been doing signifies the continuation of a past action.)

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I believe what you want to say is

1. 我在北京住了六个月。(I would rather translate it "It was 6 months I lived in Beijing.")

2. 我住在北京六个月了。("It has been 6 months (since) I lived in Beijing.")

Answer 4

Chinese people like to make the tenses explicit:

1. 我曾在北京住过6个月。

2. 我已经在北京住了6个月了。