I have been meaning to ask you

Question

How would you say to someone, I have been meaning to ask you

Answer 1

The verb 'mean' is one of those verbs that cannot be used with continuous tenses.

So you can't say 'I'm meaning to say', this is wrong.

Your sentence "I have been meaning to ask you" is in the present perfect continuous, so it's wrong.

Other verbs in this class are hate, like, love, need, prefer, want, wish, believe, imagine, know...etc, sometimes they are used in continuous tenses in slang though.

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For the Spanish part I'd simply say ' (yo) quería (lo) preguntarte' .

Answer 2

To just say this I think you would say

Quería preguntarte... "I was wanting to ask you (whatever you were wanting to ask)

Maybe in written Spanish you could say

He estado queriendo preguntarte... "I have been wanting to ask you..."

but that would be formal and stuffy.

I also considered suggesting this! It's good stuff :D - unMica, Aug 15, 2011

Answer 3

"Había pensado en preguntarte... etc." This is correct, but I'm not sure if it's the best way to say it.

You could also say "he estado pensando en preguntarte." Same meaning, different wording.

This seems to work, too. - Jeremias, Aug 15, 2011

Answer 4

The way I would say it is:

He estado por preguntarte

Estar por means "to be about to" or "to be on the verge of". So this would be like "I've been on the verge of asking you".

Yep, this sounds best to me. Closer to the true "meaning" in English. - territurtle, Aug 15, 2011

Answer 5

The dictionary says:

to mean (intend): "tener (la) intención de hacer algo"

Quizás...

"Llevo teniendo la intención de preguntarte..."