Expressing Accumulated Progress: llevar + past participle
To express how much of a task you have completed "so far," use the verb llevar followed by a past participle. While llevar usually means "to carry" or "to take," here it translates to "to have done up to now."
| to have (done) so far (+ participle) | llevar |
The past participle functions like an adjective describing the completed items, so it must agree in gender and number with the direct object. Notice how the participle hechas matches the feminine plural noun grullas:
| I have made ten origami cranes so far. | Llevo hechas diez grullas de origami. |
This agreement rule applies no matter the verb:
| The boy has folded three frogs so far. | El niño lleva dobladas tres ranas. |
When asking questions about accumulated progress, the agreement still matches the noun being discussed (like the masculine plural cuadrados):
| How many squares have you cut for the triangle so far? | ¿Cuántos cuadrados llevas cortados para el triángulo? |
It also works perfectly with singular nouns. In the next example, doblada is feminine singular because it matches la mitad (the half), rather than the origami itself:
| I have already folded half of the origami. | Ya llevo doblada la mitad del origami. |
You can even use this structure in the negative to express how much of a task has not been completed yet:
| You haven't finished many symmetrical folds so far today. | Ustedes no llevan terminados muchos pliegues simétricos hoy. |