Breakdown of Tienes muchas canas, pero llevamos treinta años sin vernos.
pero
but
tener
to have
mucho
many / a lot
ver
to see / to look / appear
el año
year
treinta
thirty
nos
each other (reciprocal)
sin
without
llevar
to have been (doing) for a time
la cana
the gray hair
Questions & Answers about Tienes muchas canas, pero llevamos treinta años sin vernos.
How does the phrase llevamos treinta años sin vernos work to mean "we haven't seen each other in thirty years"?
This sentence uses the structure llevar (conjugated) + [amount of time] + sin + [infinitive]. Literally, it means "we carry thirty years without seeing each other." While English uses a negative present perfect tense ("we haven't seen"), Spanish commonly uses this llevar structure in the present tense to express how much time has passed since an action last happened.
Why is nos attached to the end of ver to make vernos?
The nos here is a reciprocal pronoun meaning "each other." Because the verb follows the preposition sin (without), ver must remain in its infinitive (unconjugated) form. In Spanish, object and reciprocal pronouns are attached directly to the end of infinitives.
Why is it sin vernos and not sin viéndonos? Doesn't English say "without seeing"?
In English, prepositions are often followed by an "-ing" verb. However, in Spanish, prepositions like sin (without), para (for), and de (of/from) are always followed by the infinitive form of the verb (ver), never the -ndo form.
Why does the sentence use muchas canas instead of something like "mucho pelo gris"?
In Spanish, gray or white hairs on a person's head are specifically called canas. Rather than describing the hair as a singular mass of color (like "gray hair" in English), Spanish speakers talk about having these individual gray hairs. So, "you have gray hair" naturally translates to tienes canas (literally, "you have gray hairs").
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