Llevo vs he estado

Question

I bought a new conversational Spanish book, and it shows that Llevo means "I have been". Is the difference between this and "he estado" that llevo means you are still there and "he estado" means you have been there before?

Also, what is the basis for llevo meaning "I have been"? LLevar is to take. This is confusing me.

Hey kdrinning, PumpkinCalabaza has done a good explanation. - luisssito, Aug 3, 2012

Answer 1

Llevo, in the sense of "I have been", is used to indicate the length of time spent in a certain place or other long-term state of being. It can also be used with a gerund ("-ando" or "-iendo") to indicate the same thing. For example:

Llevo once años aquí en la Ciudad de México.

I have been in Mexico City for eleven years.

Llevamos tres meses de novios.

We have been boyfriend/girlfriend for three months.

Llevas semanas escribiendo esa historia.

You have been writing that story for weeks.

Excellent examples. Thanks. - gringojrf, Aug 3, 2012

While I was writing Pumpkin posted this excellent response and in fact I have heard llevar used to express a time period as in the first example. - gringojrf, Aug 3, 2012

Thanks so much!! - kdrinning, Aug 3, 2012

Excelente,¿Cuántos años llevas estudiando español? - kenwilliams, Aug 3, 2012

Good job and good question kenwilliams:):):) - luisssito, Aug 3, 2012

@Kenwilliams Yo llevo un año estudiando en serio...antes del octubre pasado, casi no sabía nada...probablemente 50 palabras - PumpkinCalabaza, Aug 3, 2012

Hahahaha, your Spanish is good "si llevas estudiando un año". Eventually, Kdrinning has got it :):):) - luisssito, Aug 4, 2012

Answer 2

After pumpkins superb answer I will just give example of "haber estado" ¿Has estado en los Estados Unidos alguna vez? Have you ever been to the United States? Here you would not say has llevado.

I agree. although similar, I would not consider these expressions equals - unMica, Aug 3, 2012

Answer 3

LLevar is one of those widely used verbs with more than a two dozen different usages one of which is "haber estado". I personally have never heard llevar used in this manner but that doesn't mean its uncommon. As a non-native speaker I would use he estado. Llevar is confusing enough with all the common usages.

Answer 4

I want to add something to this.

Llevo once años aquí en la Ciudad de México.

I have been in Mexico City for eleven years.

Llevamos tres meses de novios.

We have been boyfriend/girlfriend for three months.

Llevas semanas escribiendo esa historia.

You have been writing that story for weeks.

Puede que estas oraciones no sean equivalentes, pero las oraciones en español tienen sentido, aunque sonaría un poco mejor si son usadas empleando el presente perfecto. Pero el caso es que estamos tratando de explicar el uso de "llevar" que en estos casos para nada significan "to take". Si creen que hay una traducción mucho más cercana, pues les pediría que las hagan.

Muchas gracias lusssito :) por explicar - PumpkinCalabaza, Aug 3, 2012

De nada:) - luisssito, Aug 3, 2012