All his life he had lived off his father

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1

All his life he had lived off his father.

Question:
I’d like to know why the sentence is used “had lived”, not “has lived”. Does it make any difference?

Thank you!!!

2

basically the same.
Edit: although grammar books would tell you there is a very tiny difference in practically any sentence to my knowledge they can be swapped (in speech). In writing the correctness is often required because people can sit and dissect it.
In speech there is no difference the other information in the sentence would dictate/detail whether he is still living with his father.
Technically hes still always benefiting from his father because the advantages given from his father are still with him today regardless whether he is still living off his father.

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3

Without any other context, I would definitely interpret this sentence to mean that he is no longer depending on his father. For example, I might assume this meant he had just moved out of his father’s house and now he is in trouble because he doesn’t know how to look after himself.

If it was “All his life he has lived off his father” I would assume it is still continuing to do so. Perhaps someone is saying that it is time he left home, because he has always lived off his father.

4

There is a difference. “Had lived” is the past perfect tense. “Has lived” is the present perfect tense. Without context it is impossible to say exactly why the author used the past perfect tense.

Past perfect (had lived) is used for an action that happened in the past and before another action in the past.

Present perfect (has lived) is used to describe action that began in the past and which is expected to continue, or to emphasize the relevance of past events to the present moment.

5

All his life he had lived off his father.

Would be the way to phrase it if a) he is possibly no longer living off his father, or b) you don’t want to say if he’s still living off his father.

All his life he has lived off his father.

Would be the way to phrase it if he is still living off his father and this too is desired to be communicated.

The “all” is idiomatic and offers intensity of emphasis, not literal precision of when vs when not.