"Barnen har lekt i flera timmar."

Translation: The children have been playing for several hours.

[PLLumsdaine]

Is there a reason why “The children have been playing several hours” isn’t accepted? To my ear this is completely synonymous in English with “…have been playing for several hours.”

[EduardoTerroso]

If both "have played" and "have been playing" are accepted, does that mean that from this sentence you can't tell whether the children are still playing?

[Lundgren8]

It’s true. Swedish doesn’t have a true progressive aspect like English, that is there is no difference between drinks/is drinking or have played/have been playing.

[AmbassadorTigger]

What is "The children have played for several hours" supposed to mean (as a translation of this sentence)? The closest sentence I can actually think of a context for is "The children have played for several hours straight before".