llevar

Llevar is one of those Spanish verbs that quietly does the work of an entire English semantic field. Its base meaning is to carry / take something away from here, but it expands into wear (clothes), take a person somewhere, last a period of time, lead a life or a project, and — crucially — into the llevar + time + gerundio construction that expresses ongoing duration (llevo dos años aquí — I've been here for two years). The morphology itself is dead simple: llevar is fully regular in every tense, with no spelling changes or irregularities anywhere. Every challenge with this verb is semantic, not grammatical.

This page lays out the full paradigm and then spends most of its space on the cluster of meanings and on the duration construction, which is where English speakers most often go wrong.

Non-finite forms

All regular. The participle llevado also functions adjectivally in the expression llevarlo bien/mal (lo lleva muy mal — he's taking it badly).

Indicative — simple tenses

Presente

Textbook regular. Lleváis takes the standard accent on the á.

Pretérito perfecto simple

Regular. Llevé takes the accent on the final é per the standard -ar yo preterite rule; llevó on the final ó. No spelling change because v needs no protection before e.

Pretérito imperfecto

Hugely common — describing what someone was wearing, carrying, or taking habitually.

Futuro simple

Condicional

Indicative — compound tenses

Pretérito perfecto compuesto

Pretérito pluscuamperfecto

Futuro compuesto

Condicional compuesto

Subjunctive — simple tenses

Presente de subjuntivo

Standard -ar subjunctive endings. Llevéis takes the accent.

Imperfecto de subjuntivo (-ra / -se)

Subjunctive — compound tenses

Pretérito perfecto de subjuntivo

Pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo

Imperative

All regular. Llévatelo (take it with you) — formed by attaching te and lo to the affirmative tú — is one of those constant spoken imperatives in Spain. Note the accent: two pronouns attached to a two-syllable imperative push the stress back, so the original syllable is marked.

The four core meanings — and how to tell them apart

Meaning 1: to carry / take (something) from here to there

The base meaning. Direct object is a thing. The destination is somewhere other than here. The verb implies movement away from the speaker — this is the opposite of traer, which is movement toward.

Meaning 2: to take (a person) somewhere

When the direct object is a person, llevar still works — but the English equivalent shifts from carry to take. Te llevo al aeropuerto — I'll take you to the airport (in my car). Spaniards use llevar for the routine activity of driving someone somewhere.

Meaning 3: to wear (clothes, accessories, a hairstyle)

A separate use that maps to English wear. Spaniards prefer llevar over vestir for everyday clothing descriptions.

You can also llevar facial hair, glasses, jewelry, makeup — anything you're physically displaying on your body.

Meaning 4: to lead / handle / manage

Llevar extends metaphorically to managing situations, projects, relationships. Llevar bien algo (to handle something well), llevar la cuenta (to keep the count), llevar un negocio (to run a business).

The duration construction: llevar + time + gerundio

This is the use of llevar that has no clean English equivalent and that English speakers most often struggle with. The structure is:

llevar (conjugated) + [time period] + gerundio

It means to have been doing X for [time period] — an action that started in the past and is still happening now. English uses the present perfect continuous (I have been living here for two years); Spanish uses the present indicative of llevar plus a gerundio.

You can also drop the gerundio when the action is implicit or stative — typically describing residence, employment, or relationships:

The negative form uses sin + infinitive: llevar + time + sin + infinitivo = to have not done X for [time].

This is hands-down one of the highest-frequency conversational constructions in Spain. Memorize the pattern and use it constantly.

High-frequency expressions with llevar

Llevarse bien con alguien is the standard way to say to get along with. Llevar la razón is a peninsular variant of tener razón — both are correct and frequent in Spain, but you won't hear llevar la razón much in Latin America.

The classic English-speaker error

The signature error is using the present perfect continuous of an action verb instead of the llevar construction. English speakers reach for he estado viviendo aquí por dos años — a literal translation of I have been living here for two years — when the natural Spanish is llevo dos años viviendo aquí. The literal translation is grammatical but sounds clunky and non-native; the llevar construction is what Spaniards actually use.

A second error is confusing llevar and traer. Llevar is away from speaker; traer is toward speaker. If you're at home and tell someone te traigo el libro, you mean I'm bringing the book to you — but if the listener is across town, this is wrong; you should say te llevo el libro. The pivot is always the location of the speaker, not the listener.

A third trap is using llevar for to bring in cases where the destination is here (where the speaker is). Llevar never points to here — traer does. Llévame agua would mean take me water away, which is nonsense in most contexts; tráeme agua means bring me water.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Llevar is fully regular in every tense; the challenge is semantic, not grammatical.
• Five core meanings: carry (a thing away from here), take (a person somewhere), wear (clothes, accessories), lead / handle / manage (a project, a situation), and the duration construction.
• Llevar and traer are paired by perspective: llevar is away from the speaker, traer is toward the speaker. The listener's position doesn't change this.
• Llevar + time + gerundio is the standard Spanish way to express ongoing duration — equivalent to English have been doing for. Negative: llevar + time + sin + infinitivo.
• For wearing clothes, Spaniards strongly prefer llevar over vestir: llevar un jersey, llevar el pelo corto, llevar gafas.
• Idiomatic uses: llevarse bien con, llevar la razón, llevar cuidado — peninsular favorites worth memorizing as units.