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Las mujeres cosen este cuero desde hace dos días.

Las mujeres cosen este cuero desde hace dos días.
The women have been sewing this leather for two days.
From Lesson 121:Ongoing duration (desde hace)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Las mujeres cosen este cuero desde hace dos días.

Why does the Spanish sentence use the present tense cosen when the English translation says 'have been sewing'?
In Spanish, when an action started in the past and is still happening right now, you use the present tense. Since the women are still sewing the leather, we use the present tense cosen along with desde hace to show how long it has been going on.
What exactly does desde hace mean here, and can I just use por for 'for'?
desde hace translates to 'for' or 'since [amount of time] ago' when talking about an ongoing action. While por can mean 'for' in other situations (like a planned trip), you must use desde hace when measuring how long an ongoing action has been happening up to the present moment.
Why is it este cuero and not esto cuero?
cuero (leather) is a masculine, singular noun. The word for 'this' before a masculine singular noun is always este. esto is a neutral word used only when you are pointing at an unknown object or talking about a general idea, not before a specific noun.
Is cosen a regular verb?
Yes, cosen comes from the regular verb coser (to sew). It follows the normal pattern for verbs ending in -er. To match las mujeres (they), we drop the -er and add -en to get cosen.

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