expressing "have you been (-ing)"
Hola amigos! Lately, I have found myself really stumped over a certain grammar concept and could use any explanations / advice I can get. I have looked at countless websites that attempt to explain in, but for some reason it keeps tripping me up,
I understand that when a past action starts in the past and the action carries on into the present, the verb is conjugated into the present tense and the "hace + que" time expression construction is utilized. But I am unsure how to take that information and apply it; for example, in a question (such as):
are you trying to make an appointment for the first time, or have you been coming here to the clinic for awhile?
mis intentos
¿está tratando de hacer una cita por primera vez, o ha estado viniendo aquí por un tiempo?
5 Answers
I understand that when a past action starts in the past and the action carries on into the present, the verb is conjugated into the present tense and the "hace + que" time expression construction is utilized.
¿Hace mucho tiempo que viene aquí? ? Have you been coming here for a while?
The "Hace + time" gives us a temporal anchor as to when the activity started. Because the activity being described is in the present tense, the sentence takes on (in English) the characteristic of a verb in the present perfect; namely, it describes an action that started in the past and which continues into the present.
Literally, the "hace + time" portion in the construction mentioned above tells "how long" something has been occurring, or perhaps a bit more literally, "how much time does it make (i.e. has passed)."
The way that this time expression functions might become more evident were we to closely examine the following question which literally asks us "Ho much time does it make that something has been occurring?"
?¿Cuánto hace que viene aquí a la clínica? ? How long have you been coming here to the clinic.
Removing the interrogative pronoun and specifying a time, we might form a statement such as:
?Hace un rato que viene aquí a la clínica. ? You have been coming here to the clinic for a while.
With the proper intonation (and punctuation in the written text) it is not difficult, then, to change a statement into a question:
?¿Hace un rato que viene aquí a la clínica? ? Have you been coming here to the clinic for a while?
A similar time expression that can be substituted for the "hace + time + que + present indicative verb" paradigm is the "llevar + gerundio" expression as illustrated in my response below.
In some countries, you might also run across "tener + gerundio" as evidenced by the following newspaper excerpt from El Diario de Ciudad Victoria (Tamaulipas, México):
Tengo toda mi vida haciendo esto ? I have been doing this my entire life.
Unfortunately, as an interpreter I can't change the sentence or leave things out
In my opinion the secret of good translation/interpretation is to avoid being trapped by the literal word for word approach at all costs. This is what separates the amateur from the professional.
To get the true sense and meaning and nuances of a sentence you cannot give a simply literal translation... if you want to stay employed 
To me, the wit and skill of good translation is to immediately catch the idiomatic intention of the speaker and render that into easily recognisable, comfortable English.
But there you go, I could certainly use more work 
You might also try:
¿Lleva ya un rato viniendo aquí a la clínica?
Hi River
Remember that English speakers have a love affair with the -ing (continuous) that Spanish speakers do not have (for several reasons that Izanoni could explain better than I)
WE use it almost too much in fact.
Unfortunately, as an interpreter I can't change the sentence or leave things out. I can think of much easier ways to say that sentence too, but it needs to be as accurate a translation as possible.
Thank you though 
I appreciate that someone responded
