Breakdown of Llevamos veinte años sin organizar un reencuentro.
un
a, an (masculine)
el año
year
veinte
twenty
organizar
to organize
sin
without
llevar
to have been (doing) for a time
el reencuentro
the reunion
Questions & Answers about Llevamos veinte años sin organizar un reencuentro.
Why is llevamos in the present tense when the English translation says haven't organized?
Even though English uses the present perfect to say 'haven't organized', Spanish uses the present tense of llevar because the state of 'not organizing' is still happening right now. You can think of it literally as: We currently carry twenty years without organizing a reunion.
Why do we use the infinitive organizar after sin?
In Spanish, whenever a verb directly follows a preposition like sin (without), para (for/in order to), or de (of/from), it must remain in its infinitive (unconjugated) form.
Can I just translate this word-for-word as No hemos organizado un reencuentro en veinte años?
Yes, that is grammatically correct and perfectly understood! However, using llevar + amount of time + sin + infinitive is a very natural, everyday structure in Spanish to emphasize the duration of time that has passed without doing something.
Is reencuentro the same thing as a reunión?
They are similar, but reencuentro specifically implies people seeing each other again after a long time apart (a re-encounter), which is perfect for a class or family reunion. A reunión is often just a regular meeting, like a business meeting at work.
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