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- "Esto nos ha llevado meses."
43 Comments
Decades for me. No joke. And this is supposed to be one of the easiest to learn.
I feel your pain. I actually began studying Spanish decades ago myself, in college, but forgot most of it because I did not keep it up. Last year I started using DuoLingo to relearn Spanish and it took me 9 months to complete the tree ( https://www.duolingo.com/comment/5980811 ). I do not consider myself fluent yet, but at least now I have a strong foundation to work off of while really learning the language. Hopefully one day I will be competent in it. Good luck to you as well.
I have had a very similar experience. I think what DuoLingo really does best is imprint us with stock phrases which we then modify. Perhaps that is the way all languages are learned: repetition, repetition, and repetition with some slight modification.
Nice review. Your story is certainly an inspiration for everyone. Continua, no te desanimes. Keep it up! Good luck DeanG6.
My husband has just pointed out to me that the "Duolingo method" is similar to taking driving lessons.
Although there is obviously no formal competency test on the way, it drills you enough to give you confidence to talk to native Spanish speakers and read Spanish etc. This gets you "on the road" to finally gain the experience required.
You have to start trying to read in Spanish now as much as possible and try to converse more tambien en espanol. I would recommend the immersion tab up above ;D
Yes thank you. You're right. I need to start reading. Also it would help to chat/talk with a native speaker in real life conversation.
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People will trade English for Spanish (or whatever) over Skype or Duo (the Gmail equivalent). Some schools will also put you in a virtual classroom with one or two students. The latter isn't free, but it's also not terribly expensive.
Llevar for the road weary. My dictionary lists 12 different meanings for this verb. There are additional reflexive meanings too.
It's tough, but it's hard to get too mad at this considering that people learning English have 19 definitions of "get" and 50 definitions of "set" to wrangle with. (Counting verb definitions only, per dictionary.com)
I've not covered that section in "Verbs: Present Perfect" yet but the only thing that strikes me as odd is the singular third person "ha" here. Obviously it is agreeing with the singular "esto" and "nos"/"us" is just extra info. "Esto ha llevado meses" = "This has taken months" according to google translator.
Yes, it is 'this' that is doing the 'taking', thus 'ha llevar' is singular. 'nos' simply specifies that it has taken US months, rather than having taken months on its own. If it was a more direct "We've been doing ____ for months" the verb would be in nosotros form i believe.
It is extra info compared to the example I listed without it "Esto ha llevado meses" = "This has taken months". Obviously with it it changes the translation. That's why I wrote "nos"/"us".
Is this the most natural way to say this? I would have used 'durar' or something
Maybe 'hemos durado meses en esto' or something, although that's changing things a bit.
That does not sound good, "durar" does not have that meaning, but there are other possible translations, for instance: "Hemos tardado meses en esto / esto nos ha tardado meses", or "esto nos ha tomado meses".
Llevar is a very common way to express time.
Maybe 1 Maybe 2 more. Almost there. I may do a victory dance when I finish this course!
This has taken US months vs This has taken months
nos serves the same purpose as "us". otherwise it's a lot less specific.
Query about pronunciation . 'll' seems to be pronounced differently when at the beginning of a word? - e.g. in "llevado" compared with "ella".
Some experienced Spanish speakers here have mentioned that different voices used in the spoken exercises have different accents, such as with the "ll" in "ella" sounding like more like soft "j" rather than a "y" in some cases, which they attribute to a Cuban accent.
Are you talking about gaucho accent (zheísmo)? "yo" pronounced as "zjo" etc?
It began in Argentina but has spread all over. Pop culture sometimes considers it a boost to machismo.
"y" is not pronounced exactly as "j". It is somewhere between the "s" in measure and "j" and "y".
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I suspect TilEulenspiegel is talking about something more general. The Argentinian s, y, z, and ll do sound french to me, but, for example, on an ad on TV, I hear what sounds like "jamanos ja" for "llamanos ya" (call us right now). I don't hear that J sound (like in English) in European spanish, but I sure hear it all over in New World spanish.
My translation would have been: This has left us months (to do something). Is this a possible translation?
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I think that would be "Esto nos ha dejado meses (para hacer más)", but I'm not a native speaker.
Thanks Gernt. I struggle a bit, confusing "llevar" and "dejar". Not sure why.
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Besides, of course, that llevar is commonly used for carry, take, bring, and wear, not to mention "has/have been here" and many other things, while dejar is just as ambiguous. You should see the English students trying wrap their heads around "get".
