①私は8年前から(=8年間)英語の勉強をしています。(7語)[8も綴りで書くこと][agoは用いない]
①I have studied/learned English for eight years.
First, let's split that up a little:
1A: I have studied English for eight years.
1B: I have learned English for eight years.
**And I'm assuming that's the 'correct' pair/contrast that you want, and that you do not mean this choice:
2A: I have studied English for eight years.
2B: I learned English for eight years. ( < and this seems just as awkward as 1B.)
Generally, if I received sentence 1B on a student paper, I would change that sentence in one way or another. Which brings up two questions: why would I change it--what are the underlying reasons that I don't like it, and next, what would I offer as alternatives (to 1B). Quickly, one alternative would be to change 1B into 1A--cross out 'learned', and add 'studied'.
The
why: 1B seems a little awkward to me. Perhaps a more 'natural' way of saying it would be:
1C: I have been learning English for eight years.
This seems like a more natural sentence--something that you'd likely come across in normal usage.
But the meaning is different. In 1C, the meaning is that you've been learning English, and that you still are--that this
action continues into the present. Whereas with 1B, that is uncertain, or is not the case--you are no longer studying English. IMO, a better way to express this--that you spent eight years learning it but that you are (perhaps) no longer learning it now, is:
1D: I have spent eight years learning English.
1E: I was a student of English for eight years.
I googled around a little, and found quite a bit on 'learn' vs. 'study'. Best/simplest idea is that studying is an action (so the "A" versions are correct), while learn is not something that you do--it is the
result of an action, the act of studying..
3A: I studied English for eight years.
3B: I learned English for eight years. (same as 2B)
I'm not sure that any of this helps, or that it really explains why I'm uncomfortable with 1B/2B. There is probably some other obvious usage point concerning 'learn' in these examples that I'm not picking up on at the moment--maybe it's that time phrase, 'for eight years'.
Finally, note that 'learn' can be followed (correctly) by a "that + S" construction:
4: (After studying for eight years,) I (have) learned that English is impossible to master completely.
5: I (have) learned that at work, you just have to keep quiet during certain meetings.
But these, 4 and 5, are saying that you learned a specific piece of information, and here 'learn' seems synonymous with 'realize', rather than being the result of a process like language learning
Good luck!