How do you say been?

Question

For instance, in a sentence "I have not been to grandma's in three years." How would you translate the have not been? I'm thinking No he estada but I'm not sure.

Answer 1

Hi bpark123, and welcome to the SpanishDict "Answer's forum!

For instance, in a sentence "I have not been to grandma's in three years." How would you translate the have not been? I'm thinking No he estada but I'm not sure.

Rather than the perfect tense, there is actually a colloquial expression peculiar to Spanish that could be used for such cases. The basic structure is as follows:

Hace + time expression + verb in the present indicative

This leads to the following translation:

Hace tres años que no visito a mi abuela → I haven't visited my grandmother in three years

—or—

Hace tres años que no veo a mi abuela → I haven't seen my grandmother in three years

• Although, I suppose if I am talking about MY grandma, I would probably use "abuelita" - Izanoni1 Dec 16, 2011
• Il fait trois ans que ... (same construction in French). - samdie Dec 17, 2011
• Notice in Izanoni's versions that visito and veo are in the present tense. That is very common in Spanish for an action that began in the past and continues into the present. - Goyo Dec 17, 2011
• Portuguese also uses a similar expression: Faz três anos que não vejo minha avó. Italian (I believe) does not but instead uses "da" which is similar to "desde." So it appears that this construction is "peculiar" to a few other Romance languages as well. - Izanoni1 Dec 17, 2011

Answer 2

"I have not been to grandma's in three years" maybe grandma;s means her place Where are you? , I am eating at Chili's No he estado en la casa de la abuela en tres años.No he ido a la casa de la abuela en tres años.

Answer 3

The "been" in your sentence actually means "gone" and "estar" is not used that way in Spanish. Typically it would be "no he ido ..." (past participle of "ir"). If you insist (for some reason) in using "estar" you can change the idea slightly (as suggested by Xicotillo's response) and make it equivalent to "I haven't been in her house ...".

Answer 4

I think you are mostly correct except that maybe you don't change estado to the feminine? It is the perfect tense and estado is the particple of estar. No he estado mi abuela en tres años. But I wouldn't bet my life on this being correct.

• Good thing you didn't bet. Your sentence makes no sense. "No he estado en la casa de mi abuela" would work. Izanoni's construction is better though. - Goyo Dec 17, 2011