taking time

Question

I'm trying to say: It takes a lot of time to come up with this bad spanish. Taking time seems likely to be idiomatic, so I've translated it as: Necesito mucho tiempo por hacer este español malo. I am wondering how I might have said that if I actually spoke spanish. how would you say that something takes a long time'

Answer 1

Another option would be to say "Se tarda mucho en aprender este español tan malo".

Answer 2

Thanks. I'm trying to impress my son, who is living in Argentina and speaks like a native. You've helped. The only problem is that now it sounds too good. He'll never believe I came up with it on my own.

Answer 3

SoKuhl said:

Would it be incorrect to say, "Hace mucho tiempo de escribir este mal español" ?

Yes, it is grammatically wrong, and it would be translated as "A long time has happened of writting this bad Spanish".

Another alternative to James' suggestions (if you don't mind to use the present perfect, and a slightly different translation):

Me ha costado mucho trabajo hablar/escribir el español así de mal.

Answer 4

Necesito mucho tiempo por hacer este español malo

This literally means "I need a lot of time because of doing this bad Spanish."

I would say:

Me tomó/llevó/costó mucho tiempo escribir este mal/pobre español.

You could also say:

Tardé mucho tiempo en...