Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): Llevo estudiando español tres años y todavía descubro cosas nuevas. - I have been studying Spanish for three years and I still discover new things.

Llevo estudiando español tres años y todavía descubro cosas nuevas.

I have been studying Spanish for three years and I still discover new things.

Breakdown of Llevo estudiando español tres años y todavía descubro cosas nuevas.

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Questions & Answers about Llevo estudiando español tres años y todavía descubro cosas nuevas.

What is the structure “llevo estudiando” and how does it work? It looks odd to use llevar with another verb.

In this sentence, llevo estudiando is an example of “llevar + gerundio”, a very common structure in Spanish.

Its basic pattern is:

llevar + gerundio + expresión de tiempo
→ llevo estudiando español tres años

It expresses how long you have been doing something up to now.
In English, it usually corresponds to:

I have been doing X for [time]

So:

Llevo estudiando español tres años ≈ I’ve been studying Spanish for three years.

Literally, it’s like saying “I carry three years studying Spanish”, but that’s not how we translate it; the idea is duration of an ongoing activity.

Could I also say “Llevo tres años estudiando español”? Is that the same?

Yes, both are correct and very common:

Llevo estudiando español tres años.
Llevo tres años estudiando español.

They mean the same thing: “I’ve been studying Spanish for three years.”

The version with the time in the middle (Llevo tres años estudiando español) is probably a bit more common and a bit more natural-sounding, but both are fine and fully understood everywhere.

Why is there no “por” before “tres años”? In English we say “for three years”.

In Spanish, with this kind of structure, you usually don’t use “por”:

Llevo estudiando español tres años. ✅
Llevo estudiando español por tres años. ⛔ (sounds unnatural in this context)

Spanish often omits a preposition where English uses “for” with time:

Vivo aquí desde hace cinco años. (not por cinco años)
He trabajado en esta empresa dos años.

You do use por with time in some other contexts (especially when the idea is “for the duration of / during”), but not in this one expressing “have been doing X for Y time” with llevar + gerundio.

What’s the difference between “Llevo estudiando español tres años” and “He estado estudiando español por tres años”?

Both can be translated as “I have been studying Spanish for three years”, but they differ in:

Naturalness
- Llevo estudiando español tres años sounds very natural and very common in everyday speech.
- He estado estudiando español por tres años is grammatically possible, but in practice Spanish speakers prefer:
  - Llevo estudiando español tres años.
  - Hace tres años que estudio español.
  - Estudio español desde hace tres años.
Tone / usage
- “Llevar + gerundio” is compact, colloquial, and common.
- The present perfect progressive (he estado estudiando) exists, but is used less often than in English for long-term habits. It’s more for specific ongoing periods:
  - He estado estudiando toda la tarde. = I’ve been studying all afternoon.

So, if you want to sound natural, prefer:

Llevo estudiando español tres años.
Llevo tres años estudiando español.
Hace tres años que estudio español.
Estudio español desde hace tres años.

Why is “español” used without an article? Could I say “el español”?

Both are possible, but they are used a bit differently:

Llevo estudiando español tres años. ✅
Here español means “Spanish (the language) in general”; no article is needed.
Llevo estudiando el español tres años. ✅ but less common in this context
Using el español puts more focus on “the Spanish language as a specific subject”, and in many cases it sounds a little more formal or specific.

In practice, when talking about knowing or studying a language, Spanish usually drops the article:

Estudio español.
Habla inglés muy bien.
Estamos aprendiendo francés.

Using the article is more common in some other structures, e.g.:

El español es un idioma muy hablado.
Me encanta el español de Colombia.

What does “todavía” mean here, and where can it go in the sentence?

Todavía means “still / yet” and expresses that something continues to happen or has not changed.

In the sentence:

…y todavía descubro cosas nuevas.
→ “…and I still discover new things.”

It emphasizes that even after three years of studying, the speaker continues to discover new things.

Common positions for todavía:

Todavía descubro cosas nuevas.
Todavía descubro cosas nuevas yo. (less common, adds emphasis on “I”)
Yo todavía descubro cosas nuevas.
Descubro todavía cosas nuevas. (possible, but less neutral-sounding)

The most natural is usually just before the verb:

Todavía descubro cosas nuevas.

What’s the difference between “todavía” and “aún”?

In most everyday contexts, todavía and aún both mean “still / yet”, and you can substitute one for the other:

Todavía descubro cosas nuevas.
Aún descubro cosas nuevas.

Nuances:

In Latin America, todavía is more frequent in everyday speech.
Aún can sometimes sound a little more formal or literary, depending on the region and context, though it’s also used colloquially.

For a learner, using todavía is a safe default in Latin American Spanish.

Why is it “descubro” (simple present) and not “estoy descubriendo” (present progressive), like “I’m still discovering”?

Spanish uses the simple present much more than English to talk about:

ongoing habits
general truths
things that happen repeatedly over a period of time

In English you say:

I’m still discovering new things.

In Spanish, the natural choice is:

Todavía descubro cosas nuevas. ✅

Using the progressive:

Estoy descubriendo cosas nuevas.

focuses more on what’s happening right around now / in this period, not so much a long-term general habit.

In this sentence, the idea is that throughout these three years, the person keeps on discovering new things, again and again. That’s why the simple present (descubro) is preferred.

Could I replace “estudiando” with “aprendiendo”?

You could say it, but it changes the nuance:

Llevo estudiando español tres años.
→ Focus on the action of studying (taking classes, practicing, doing exercises, etc.).
Llevo aprendiendo español tres años.
→ Focus on the process of learning / acquiring knowledge.

In everyday speech, when talking about how long you’ve been taking classes, studying as a subject, etc., estudiar is more common and natural:

Llevo estudiando español tres años. ✅ (most natural)
Llevo aprendiendo español tres años. ✅ but less usual; sounds slightly odd to some speakers in this structure.

If you really want “learning”, people often phrase it differently, for example:

Hace tres años que estoy aprendiendo español.
Llevo tres años con el español y todavía aprendo cosas nuevas.

Why is it “cosas nuevas” and not “nuevas cosas”? Does word order change the meaning?

Spanish normally places adjectives after the noun:

cosa nueva = new thing
cosas nuevas = new things

So cosas nuevas is the regular, neutral word order.

You can say nuevas cosas, but:

It sounds more marked or emphatic.
It can suggest a nuance like “different, additional, other new things”, especially in contrast to the ones you already knew.

In this sentence, cosas nuevas is the most natural and neutral way to say “new things.”

Is this sentence typical of Latin American Spanish? Would someone in Latin America say it like this?

Yes, the sentence is perfectly natural in Latin American Spanish:

Llevo estudiando español tres años y todavía descubro cosas nuevas.

Latin American speakers also commonly use the same alternative structures you might hear in Spain:

Llevo tres años estudiando español…
Hace tres años que estudio español…
Estudio español desde hace tres años…

All of these are very standard across Latin America.

Are there other common ways in Spanish to say “I’ve been studying Spanish for three years”?

Yes, very common alternatives include:

Llevar + gerundio (what you already have)
- Llevo tres años estudiando español.
- Llevo estudiando español tres años.
Hace + tiempo + que + verbo
- Hace tres años que estudio español.
Verbo + desde hace + tiempo
- Estudio español desde hace tres años.

All three patterns are very common and natural.
English tends to always use “have been + -ing for…”; Spanish has several equivalent structures.

Could I include “yo” and say “Yo llevo estudiando español tres años…”?

Yes:

Yo llevo estudiando español tres años y todavía descubro cosas nuevas.

This is grammatically correct. However, in Spanish:

The subject is already clear from the verb ending (llevo = “I carry/ I have been [doing]”).
So yo is usually omitted unless you want to emphasize “I”:
- Yo llevo estudiando español tres años…
  → maybe in contrast to someone else: “I have been studying Spanish for three years (but you haven’t / but they haven't).”

In neutral statements, dropping yo is more natural:

Llevo estudiando español tres años… ✅

Is “llevo estudiando español tres años” talking about the past only, or does it include now?

It includes both the past and the present.

Llevar + gerundio + expresión de tiempo always implies:

The action started in the past,
Continues up to now,
And may still continue into the future.

So:

Llevo estudiando español tres años
= I started three years ago,
= I am still studying now,
= I might keep studying.

It works just like English “I’ve been studying Spanish for three years.”