Talk about what has changed in a year

The first thing people in Spain will ask you: "How long have you been here?" In English you answer "I've been here for a year." A Spanish speaker will most often say it with the verb llevar.

You already know llevar — "to carry, to wear" (A1, unit 9), and you can say "for a year" with desde hace: Vivo aquí desde hace un año (A2, unit 14). Llevar + time means the same thing, but it's shorter and more conversational.

Word for word it's "I carry a year". You can go on in three ways:

The verb is regular: llevo, llevas, lleva, llevamos, lleváis, llevan.

• ¿Cuánto tiempo llevas en España? — How long have you been in Spain?
• Llevamos media hora esperando el autobús. — We've been waiting for the bus for half an hour.
• Mi vecino lleva tres días sin salir de casa. — My neighbor hasn't left the house for three days.
• Llevo dos semanas enferma. — I've been sick for two weeks (woman speaking).

Verb tense. Llevar is in the present tense, even though it all started in the past. English uses the present perfect here ("I've been", "I've been living"), but Spanish uses the plain present: llevo, not he llevado.

Common mistakes.

• Mixing the two ways: ✗ llevo desde hace un año. Just say llevo un año: desde hace isn't needed here.
• Saying "not doing" with no and a gerund: ✗ llevo un mes no viéndote. Say llevo un mes sin verte.
• Using llevar for something that's already over. "I lived there for a year" (and then left) is viví allí un año.

You already know seguir — "to go on, to follow" (sigue todo recto, A1, unit 7), and the gerund — the form ending in -ando or -iendo (estoy trabajando, A2, unit 1).

Together they mean "still doing, keep doing". It's the main question when you meet someone after a long break: "Are you still working there? Are you still living with Dani?"

Present tense forms: sigo, sigues, sigue, seguimos, seguís, siguen. In the stem, e changes to i, and the yo form has no u: sigo.

• ¿Sigues trabajando en la misma oficina? — Are you still working at the same office?
• Sigo viviendo en el piso de Carmen. — I'm still living in Carmen's apartment.
• Son las once y sigue lloviendo. — It's eleven o'clock and it's still raining.
• Mis padres siguen pensando que en España siempre hace calor. — My parents still think it's always hot in Spain.

The same thing in other words. Todavía trabajo allí (A1) and sigo trabajando allí mean the same. Seguir sounds more lively: it stresses that nothing has changed. The verb continuar works the same way: continúo estudiando — "I keep studying". It's a bit more formal.

Without a gerund, seguir also means "still" — with a place or a description: Sigo en Valencia — "I'm still in Valencia", Todo sigue igual — "everything's still the same".

Common mistake. In English, "continue" can take "to": "I continue to work". Spanish can't do that: ✗ sigo trabajar. Say sigo trabajando. After seguir and continuar, use only the gerund.

You already know dejar — "to leave" (dejo las llaves en la mesa, A2, unit 2).

With the preposition de and an infinitive, the same verb means "to stop, to quit doing something". You need it when you talk about changes: I quit, I stopped being afraid, I don't drive anymore.

It's simple: dejar de + infinitive. Note that English says "stop drinking" with -ing, but Spanish uses the infinitive: dejar de tomar. Dejar itself is a regular verb. When you talk about changes, it's most often in the present perfect, he dejado de: you stopped, and the result shows now.

• He dejado de tomar café por la noche. — I've stopped drinking coffee at night.
• Mi hermano ha dejado de comer carne. — My brother has stopped eating meat.
• ¿Cuándo dejaste de estudiar inglés? — When did you stop studying English?
• ¡Deja de mirar el móvil! — Stop looking at your phone!
• No dejo de pensar en las vacaciones. — I never stop thinking about the vacation (I think about it all the time).

The unit's three verbs side by side:

Next to ya no (A2, unit 10). Ya no tomo café — "I don't drink coffee anymore": this is about how things are now. He dejado de tomar café — "I've stopped drinking coffee": this is about the change itself.

Common mistakes.

• Leaving out de. Without de, dejar + infinitive means "to let, to allow": Me dejan trabajar en casa — "they let me work from home". But Dejo de trabajar a las seis — "I stop working at six".
• Using a gerund, as after seguir: ✗ he dejado de trabajando. Say he dejado de trabajar. English "stop working" makes this mistake easy: in Spanish it's always the infinitive.