Estos días ando haciendo un resumen de cada capítulo para practicar más.

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Breakdown of Estos días ando haciendo un resumen de cada capítulo para practicar más.

• un: a
• el día: the day
• para: to

Questions & Answers about Estos días ando haciendo un resumen de cada capítulo para practicar más.

Why does the sentence start with Estos días? Does it mean these days in the same way as in English?

Yes. Estos días is a very common way to say these days / lately / recently.

In this sentence, it does not mean literally only the days that are here now. It means something like during this period of time or recently.

So Estos días ando haciendo... means something like:

• These days, I’ve been working on...
• Lately, I’ve been...

It sets the time frame for the whole sentence.

Why is ando haciendo used instead of just hago or estoy haciendo?

Andar + gerund is a useful Spanish structure, especially in Spain, for talking about an action that someone has been doing around recently, often in a casual or non-fixed way.

So:

• hago un resumen = I make / I do a summary (simple present, more neutral or habitual)
• estoy haciendo un resumen = I am doing a summary (right now, at this moment)
• ando haciendo un resumen = I’ve been doing / I’ve been going around doing a summary (these days, recently, over a period of time)

In this sentence, ando haciendo suggests an ongoing activity over recent days, not necessarily at the exact moment of speaking.

What exactly does mean?