Can you use the compound tense and a gerund?

Question

I've never seen it, but I do it in English all the time. Here's an example:

Que has estado haciendo (supposed to say "what have you been doing")

PS: I can't do accents.

Answer 1

Another example
How long have you been in England? - ¿Cuanto tiempo Lleva/as en Inglaterra'

Answer 2

Thanks everyone, I'll keep llevar in mind, along with the comment about translation.

Answer 3

I agree with Eddy's comments. Although your grammar is perfectly fine in Spanish, it's a question of how frequently it is used in Spanish versus in English. This construction is used very often in English, but isn't heard that often in Spanish, which means there are other, better ways of expressing the idea.

Professional translators translate situations, not words, so you have to ask yourself what a native Spanish speaker would say when an English speaker would say "What have you been doing'" There are many possibilities, but they include "¿Qué hay de nuevo'," "¿Qué pasa'," and "Cuéntame las novedades." These are in addition to llevar, as mentioned by Eddy.

Answer 4

Sally
I agree, but you can understand and translate this word for word. Qué lleva haciendo makes no sense and so appears so spanish.

Answer 5

Que has estado haciendo would also be correct.

Answer 6

There was an earlier post about this. A more current method is to use Llevar ie "Qué lleva haciendo". I believe in this instance Llevar means "To have been".

Answer 7

i believe so, yes.