ESL question: Does this sound OK?

Question

"He was living in Paris for like ten years when the war broke out."

Answer 1

Using the word "like" in this sentence makes it colloquial and technically incorrect grammatically because the word "like" is used as a filler for the word "about". However, using it is more native in an informal conversation and could be used in a non-formal setting. If you want to be correct use a word like "about" or "approximately".

As for the "He was living in Paris..." it would be best if you used "He had been living in Paris..." because while both are past tense, "was living" is a Simple Past ("Preterite") which expresses simply that the action happened in the past. However, "had been" is a Past Perfect ("Pluperfect") used to refer to an event that has completed before another past action, in this case as past state of being.

You may also want to change the word "when" to "before" completing the Past Perfect sentence, but it is not needed.

Correct: "He had been living in Paris for about ten years when the war broke out".

Answer 2

It sounds fine, but I would change the word like for the word about or just drop the word like altogether.

For example:
"He was living in Paris for about ten years when the war broke out."
or "He was living in Paris for ten years when the war broke out."

Answer 3

Do not use the word 'like' in that sentence.
You can say, "He had been living in Paris for approximately 10 years when the war broke out." or you can say, "When the war broke out, he had been living in Paris for about 10 years."

Answer 4

Not good. Better: "He had been living in Paris for about ten years when the war broke out." Note the past perfect tense of the verb, and the more appropriate adjective.

Answer 5

Using the word like in there may not be technically correct, but it certainly makes you sound like a native speaker. The sentence is fine as it is.

Answer 6

As v1tff mentioned, it's not correct English, but many americans would say exactly what you wrote.

Answer 7

In SPOKEN language, in an INFORMAL situation, you can say this. It is incorrect in the written form.