how long have you been vs how long had you been

Both phrases are correct, but they are used in different contexts. 'How long have you been' is used to ask about the duration of an action or state that started in the past and continues up to the present. 'How long had you been' is used to ask about the duration of an action or state that started in the past and continued up to a specific point in the past.

Last updated: March 30, 2024 • 1937 views

how long have you been

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English to ask about the duration of an action or state that started in the past and continues up to the present.

This phrase is used to inquire about the length of time someone has been doing something or experiencing a particular situation from the past up to the present.

Examples:

How long have you been studying English?
How long have you been living in this city?
How long have you been working at your current job?
How long have you been playing the piano?
How long have you been waiting for the bus?

Show examples from the web [+]

Feb 4, 2011 ... For how long have you been eating? I consider the sentence to be correct, but some days ago, a teacher (not mine) told me that it was not. And ...
The Pie Hole, Los Angeles: "how long have you been in service? thanks" | Check out answers, plus 303 unbiased reviews and candid photos: See 303 unbiased ...
Learn how to say "how long have you been learning Chinese?" in Chinese, how to say it in real life and how you can use Memrise to learn other Chinese ...

Alternatives:

For how long have you been
Since when have you been
How long had you been
How long did you spend
How long were you

how long had you been

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English to ask about the duration of an action or state that started in the past and continued up to a specific point in the past.

This phrase is used to inquire about the length of time someone had been doing something or experiencing a particular situation up to a specific point in the past.

Examples:

How long had you been studying English before you moved to the U.S.?
How long had you been living in that house before you decided to sell it?
How long had you been working at your previous job before you got promoted?
How long had you been playing the guitar before you joined a band?
How long had you been waiting for the train when it finally arrived?

Show examples from the web [+]

How long had you been gone?
And how long had you been in the room?
And how long had you been involved with her?
At the time you investigated the Harrot murder, how long had you been employed by Las Vegas PD?
And how long had you been renting a room from Edith?
So, how long had you been getting readings from Patrick Zelman, Dr. Newhall?
How long had you been seeing Mrs. Rheiman?
How long had you been using his service?
How long had you been in that cage?
How long had you been thinking about moving in, Gavin?
How long had you been engaged to Celia? - Couple of weeks.
How long had you been trying to find the author of that webpage?
How long had you been gone?
How long had you been seeing Doc?
How long had you been seeing Doc?
How long had you been doing this?
And how long had you been involved with her? O-Or him? Her.
How long had you been going to see Vivien?
How long had you two been home before you discovered her body?
And how long had you two been having trouble?

Alternatives:

For how long had you been
Since when had you been
How long have you been
How long did you spend
How long were you

What Our Customers Are Saying

Our customers love us! We have an average rating of 4.79 stars based on 283,125 votes.
Also check out our 2,100+ reviews on TrustPilot (4.9).

"Thank you!"
Sachi Nakama July 2024
"I have literally been through chat, PI, claude, bard and bing and I got conflicting answers! Thank you! Human intelligence reigns!"
Retha July 2024
"Faster than AI"
CYNTHIA December 2023
"This was very helpful and I personally think this site is the best."
Kaden October 2023
"It was extremely thorough and very helpful!"
imperialelisa October 2023
"7 years without any disappointment. Always 100% satisfied. You guys are the best in the world at what you do. Thank you so much :)"
Zubair Alam October 2023
"In a world of text messages and online communication, this is great to have as a live tool. Thank you."
Selena October 2023
"Without textranch I would be stuck!"
宏祐 October 2023
"Accuracy and fast response. Personal comments from editor. Thank you."
Clh September 2023
"I wasn't aware of this service, it's fascinating and more reliable than standard IA tools available on the internet"
Arturo September 2023
"The fact that you can get reliable fast feedback on your texts."
Vinicius Antonio August 2023
"you guys are better than grammarly i'm being honest here"
ordinary July 2023
"OMG! This is really good than any other text correction tools I've used so far. Highly recommend this."
Vehan July 2023
"Very fast and accurate. thank you."
mojtaba July 2023
"I love this app because it's help to writing skills all of students ♥️"
Tarisini July 2023
"This was exactly the mistake I was looking for, the wording dind´t sound right at first. Better than grammarly!"
Ente July 2023
"The immediate help that I received was reassuring and very satisfactory. Thanks."
priiiyanshuu July 2023
"this helps A LOT for my studies."
kathnunez02 June 2023
"Woow!! I would never have expected such precision! Thank you soooo much!!"
Berta June 2023
"Real Time Editor and not AI. Many Thanks."
Priya June 2023
"The very first thing excites me about Textranch is how much your editors care."
sepideh June 2023
"The fact that texts are checked by human editors rather than by AI, etc. I appreciate this!"
Анна June 2023
"Feel welcome, immediate response, high quality feedback"
martin.roy June 2023
"This is the best app that I have ever seen"
Burulai May 2023

how long have you been vs how long had you been