Мы давно живём в этом доме.

We have been living in this house for a long time.

Breakdown of Мы давно живём в этом доме.

• дом: the house
• в: in
• мы: we
• этот: this

Questions & Answers about Мы давно живём в этом доме.

Why does Russian use the present tense живём here instead of a form that looks like English “have been living”?

Russian does not have a direct equivalent of the English Present Perfect (have done) or Present Perfect Continuous (have been doing).

• The verb живём is simply present tense, imperfective aspect and normally translates here as:
  • “We have been living (and still live) in this house for a long time.”
• Russian shows the idea of “for a long time already” by:
  • using the imperfective present (живём),
  • and adding an adverb like давно (“for a long time / long ago”).

So the combination давно + present tense often corresponds to English “have been doing something for a long time.”

What exactly does давно mean in this sentence?

Давно literally means:

• “a long time ago” or “for a long time”, depending on context.

Here, with a present tense verb (живём), it means:

• “for a long time (already)” – emphasizing duration up to now.

If it were used with a past-tense verb, like Мы давно жили в этом доме, it would usually mean:

• “We lived in this house long ago.”

So давно + present = long duration up to now;
давно + past = something that happened a long time ago and is over.