Breakdown of Llevo dos días sin encender la consola porque no quiero estar distraído en época de exámenes.
Questions & Answers about Llevo dos días sin encender la consola porque no quiero estar distraído en época de exámenes.
Here llevar does not mean to carry or to wear. It’s part of a very common time-expression structure:
llevar + período de tiempo + gerundio
→ Llevo dos días estudiando. = I’ve been studying for two days.llevar + período de tiempo + sin + infinitivo
→ Llevo dos días sin encender la consola. = I haven’t turned on the console for two days / I’ve gone two days without turning on the console.
So llevo here is a present tense verb that expresses an action or state that started in the past and continues up to now, very similar to English I’ve been… or I’ve gone (time) without…
Yes, you can, and in practice they are very close in meaning:
- Llevo dos días sin encender la consola.
- Hace dos días que no enciendo la consola.
Both mean that for the last two days you haven’t turned on the console.
Nuances:
- Hace dos días que… focuses a bit more on when the situation started (two days ago).
- Llevo dos días… focuses a bit more on the duration up to now.
In everyday speech, both are perfectly natural and almost interchangeable. You could also say:
- No enciendo la consola desde hace dos días.
All three are good, natural Spanish.
In Spanish, after prepositions (like sin, para, por, en, de, a), you almost always use the infinitive, not the gerund:
- sin encender (without turning on)
- para estudiar (in order to study)
- por llegar tarde (for arriving late)
So:
- ✅ Llevo dos días sin encender la consola.
- ❌ Llevo dos días sin encendiendo la consola. (incorrect)
The gerund (encendiendo) is used for progressive or accompanying actions, not after sin in this kind of phrase.
Consola is a feminine noun in Spanish, so it takes la:
- la consola = the console
About la vs mi vs nothing:
- la consola: The listener is expected to know which console we’re talking about from context (for example, your usual gaming console).
- mi consola: Explicitly says it’s my console. It would also be correct:
Llevo dos días sin encender mi consola. - Bare noun without article (∅ consola) is generally not correct in this position in Spanish; common countable nouns normally need a determiner (la, una, mi, esta…).
So la consola is natural because in context it’s probably the console I usually play, and that’s understood between speaker and listener.
The ser / estar choice changes the meaning of distraído:
- estar distraído = to be distracted (in a temporary state, at a given moment or period)
- ser distraído = to be a scatterbrained person, someone habitually absent-minded
In the sentence:
- no quiero estar distraído en época de exámenes
the speaker is talking about a temporary state during exam time, not about their permanent personality. So estar is the correct verb here.
Yes. Distraído is an adjective, so it agrees with the subject:
- Él está distraído. (masculine singular)
- Ella está distraída. (feminine singular)
- Ellos están distraídos. (masculine / mixed plural)
- Ellas están distraídas. (feminine plural)
In your sentence, the form distraído assumes the speaker is male. A female speaker would say:
- Llevo dos días sin encender la consola porque no quiero estar distraída en época de exámenes.
Yes, you can say both, and both are natural:
…porque no quiero estar distraído.
because I don’t want to be distracted…porque no quiero distraerme.
because I don’t want to distract myself / I don’t want to get distracted
Nuance:
- estar distraído describes a state.
- distraerse describes the process / act of becoming distracted.
In context, they usually amount to the same thing. No quiero distraerme sounds a bit more active (I don’t want to let myself get distracted), but most speakers wouldn’t feel a strong difference here.
Época de exámenes is a common expression meaning exam period or exam season: the weeks when you have many exams (end of term, finals, etc.).
- época de exámenes ≈ exam season / exam time
Why época?
- época suggests a defined period or season with a clear characteristic (winter, Christmas, exam period, allergy season…).
- tiempo de exámenes can also be said and would be understood, but época de exámenes is the more natural, established phrase in Spain for that intense exam period.
Both are grammatically possible:
- en época de exámenes
- en la época de exámenes
But en época de exámenes (without article) works as a kind of fixed expression, similar to:
- en época de lluvias (in the rainy season)
- en época de rebajas (during the sales period)
Leaving out the article makes it feel more like a general, recurring type of period, not one specific, unique epoch. En la época de exámenes is not wrong, but it sounds a bit more specific or heavier; in everyday speech, en época de exámenes is more idiomatic.
Functionally, yes.
- Llevo dos días sin encender la consola expresses:
- an action/state that started in the past
- and continues up to now
That’s exactly what English usually expresses with the present perfect (progressive) or have gone (time) without:
- I haven’t turned on the console for two days.
- I’ve gone two days without turning on the console.
So even though Spanish uses a present form (llevo), its meaning overlaps strongly with English have/has been… or have/has gone (time) without…
The singular is:
- examen → stress on xa: eXAmen
The plural is:
- exámenes → stress on XA: eXAmenes
According to Spanish stress rules:
- Words ending in -n, -s, or a vowel are normally stressed on the second-to-last syllable.
- examenes (without accent) would be stressed as e-xa-ME-nes (penultimate syllable: me), which is wrong.
- To keep the stress on XA, you must write the accent: exámenes.
Pronunciation: e-XA-me-nes, with the stress on the second syllable.