Llevar or Hacer

Question

I am a beginner and sometimes when I say, how long have you been studying.... or how long have you been in the country.... etc I keep meeting the phrase "cuanto tiempo llevas"........? Not sure how to use it correctly. Any ideas?

I thought I could "hace tiempo"!!!!

my translator says "cuanto tiempo tengale sido".....!!'

Answer 1

Also remember that "have" is an auxiliary verb for present perfect in English that's why you say

I have been living in Berlin for 2 years = He estado viviendo en Berlin por 2 años.

For your question "how long have you been studying'" How long is "desde hace cuanto" or "por cuanto tiempo", have you been is "has estado", and of course you know studying is "estudiando"

"hace" is from the verb "make", not "have"; which in Spanish is "tener" as in property "tengo una casa", "no tengo tiempo"; or obligation "tengo que lavar mi carro"

Another observation with have: "I have breakfast at 8" is "(Yo) desayuno a las 8" instead of "yo tengo el desayuno a las 8" which people would understand but is not really correct. ("yo" can be omited)

Hope this helped

Answer 2

Thank you most kindly. I am beginning to understand and your explanations were most helpful. Regards

Answer 3

Your machine translator is useless, like the rest of them, and the sentence doesn't even make sense in Spanish, because word by word translation doesn't work. "¿Cúanto (tiempo) llevas...'" is the correct one.

Llevo un día estudiando = I have been studying for a day
Llevo dos horas esperando = I have been waiting for two hours
Llevo mucho (tiempo) sin verte = I haven't seen you for a long time
¿Cuánto (tiempo) llevas estudiando? How long have you been studying?
¿Cuánto (tiempo) llevas esperando? How long have you been waiting'

Answer 4

Thanks Lazarus, for your examples, and confirmation that "some" translators are rubbish! I was rather hoping that someone could explain when to use this verb, I find it all so confusing, having just learnt the verb "to have"!!..