Llevaba un montón de años trabajando aquí

Question

i have a question about expressing a period of time.

Here is an example from my book: "Llevaba un montón de años trabajando aquí." Using the same pattern, can i say "llevé 4 años estudiando en la universidad.´ ?

And can i say ¨llevé mucho tiempo estudiar¨? i mean to use the infinitive "estudiar" rather than "estudiando".

Thank you!!

be sure to use proper capitalization on this site :0 - nizhoni1, Apr 11, 2011

Answer 1

Here is an example from my book: "Llevaba un montón de años trabajando aquí." Using the same pattern, can i say "llevé 4 años estudiando en la universidad.´ ?

Not really. This construction is used in imperfective tenses, like present (Llevo cuatro años...) or imperfect (Llevaba cuatro años...) . For completed actions, we use an alternative construction with perfective tenses, like present perfect or preterite: "Me ha llevado 4 años terminar la carrera", "Me llevó 4 años terminar la carrera"

And can i say ¨llevé mucho tiempo estudiar¨? i mean to use the infinitive "estudiar" rather than "estudiando".

No, you can't. For starters, that "estudiar" is grammatically nonsensical, because in Spanish it works like a noun, and there cannot be two different direct objects in one sentence. You have to accept how this verb is used in Spanish. Use the sentences I've given you as a template -don't try to re-invent the language to make it sound more "English".