The periphrasal 'llevar + participio' - a question over the SD dictionary

Question

Should this be leídO?

Under 'llevar' -> antes de participio -> example sentence:

Llevo leída media novella. -> I'm halfway through the novel.

Also - Could someone (bilingual) give me the English translation of this perífasis verbales in general (not just in this sentence)? Several questions have come up this week on this thread:

No 32 - llevar + participio

Any input would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

Llevo leída media novela.

What happens is that participios work in a way similar to that of adjectives, meaning they're inflected accordingto gender and number; though that is true for periphrasical forms, but not when using haber as an auxiliary:

Llevo leída media novela.

He leído media novela.

Very helpful. That makes a lot make sense. - katydew, Jul 16, 2013

Answer 2

From your other thread,

Lleva limpiado toda la casa.

In this case the perífrasis with llevar is used to indicate this is a continious action, if you say toda, then the action has been completed and it would sound better with haber. Notice that if you said lleva limpiadas la sala y la cocina, you'd be hinting an intention to proceed with that activity.

Ok, that makes it more clear. Man this stuff gets hard! Thanks for making it easier. - katydew, Jul 16, 2013