Tardar - "It takes a long time."

Question

Whenever I try to express to a native speaker that "It takes a long time to learn Spanish," I can't seem to say it in a way that is understood. Today I ran across "tardar," and one of the examples on SpanishDict is:
"tardar en hacer algo -> to take a long time to do something"

So, could I say, "Tarda en aprender Spanish"? I don't know because when I put it in the translation box, this translation pops up, "It takes to learn Spanish." So I don't know if my wording works.

Answer 1

Yes.

Se tarda mucho en aprender español.

So, if I wanted to apologize for my slow, halting Spanish as I search for the right words, I could say, "Lo siento. Se tarda mucho en formar oraciones."?? - jgoimarac, Feb 19, 2013

If you are speaking personally you could say, lo siento por tardar mucho en .... The 'se' version is impersonal and is like our saying - One takes a long time to make sentences. - Kiwi-Girl, Feb 20, 2013

Answer 2

Tarda el tiempo que quieras.

Take as much time as you want.

Answer 3

I would say:

Se tarda mucho tiempo en aprender español.

You can use tardar in this way:

1) To talk about how long (generally) it takes to do something.

How long = ¿Cuantó

does it take? = se tarda did it take? = se tardó will it take? = se tardará

Se tarda = it takes se tardó = it took se tardará = it will take

Se tarda un semana en llegar. It takes a week to get there (to arrive).

2) To talk about how long it takes you (or a specific person) to do something.

Tardo una semana en .... = It takes me a week to .... Juan tardó mucho tiempo en ... = John took ages to ..... Tardarán dos horas en caminar. It will take them two hours to wak. ¿Tardaste mucho tiempo en encontrar trabajo? Did it take you long to find work?

Here's a link re the verb tardar with some more example sentences at the bottom so that you can see how it is used. I hope it's helpful.

Answer 4

Tardar means: Using too much time doing something.

When you say: "Tarda en aprender Español" is incorrect. The correct form is "Yo tardare tiempo en aprender español".

Answer 5

Looks good. I think "Demorarse" is also a good way to say it.