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Llevo un año estudiando en la academia.

Llevo un año estudiando en la academia.
I have been studying at the academy for a year.
From Lesson 158:Duration (llevar + gerund)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Llevo un año estudiando en la academia.

Why use llevo here instead of he estado to mean "I have been"?
While you can definitely say he estado estudiando (I have been studying), using llevar + [amount of time] + [gerund] is a very common and natural way in Spanish to say how long an ongoing action has been happening. Literally, it's like saying "I carry a year studying."
Why is llevo in the present tense when the English translation uses the past-to-present "have been"?
Because the action is still happening right now! In Spanish, if you started doing something in the past and are still doing it, you use the present tense for llevar to show that the "clock is still ticking."
Could I change the word order and say Llevo estudiando un año?
Yes! Both llevo un año estudiando and llevo estudiando un año are completely correct and mean the exact same thing. Spanish is flexible here, though placing the time phrase immediately after llevar is very common.
Does academia just mean a regular school or university?
Not exactly. An academia usually refers to a specialized private center for extracurricular classes, like a language school, dance academy, or driving school. For regular daily education or college, you would use escuela or universidad.

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