"off and on"

Question

How do you convey that phrase? Ejemplo: I've been studying Spanish off and on since high school.

Solamente se usa "de vez en cuando" o hay algo mas cercano a ese significado? Gracias!

Answer 1

You could say something like 'de manera intermitente' - I personally think 'de vez en cuando' is pretty close to the idea in English....

Answer 2

There is no literal translation. You might want to try things like "He estado estudiando español de cuando en cuando" (I've been trying to learn Spanish every now and then), or "He estado estudiando español unas veces y dejándolo otras" (I've been learning Spanish some times and leaving it some others).

Thanks, I've actually said it the second way before but I didn't know if it sounded weird. - Ashlita, Oct 6, 2010

Answer 3

"He estado estudiando español unas veces y dejándolo otras" (I've been learning Spanish some times and leaving it some others).

This is correct. "From time to time" is not the same as "off and on" since the former includes the case where the activity was engaged in only briefly at separated short intervals while thelatter does not.