Breakdown of Llevo veinte años sin ver a mi querido compañero.
ver
to see / to look / appear
el año
the year
mi
my
veinte
twenty
el compañero
the colleague / the roommate
sin
without
llevar
to have been (doing) for a time
querido
dear
a
personal 'a' (marks a human direct object)
Questions & Answers about Llevo veinte años sin ver a mi querido compañero.
Why does this sentence use llevo instead of a past tense like "no he visto" to say "I haven't seen"?
This is a very common Spanish structure to express how long a situation has been going on. To say you haven't done something for a certain amount of time, you use llevar (conjugated to match the person) + the amount of time + sin + the infinitive verb. Here, llevo veinte años sin ver literally translates to "I carry twenty years without seeing," which is the natural way to say "I haven't seen them in twenty years."
Why is there an a right after ver?
This is a reminder of the "personal a." In Spanish, when the direct object of a verb is a specific person, you must put an a before it. Even though "my dear classmate" isn't a proper name, it refers to a specific, identifiable person, so we must say ver a mi querido compañero.
Could I say compañero querido instead of querido compañero?
Yes, but putting querido before the noun sounds much more natural in this context. In Spanish, descriptive adjectives usually go after the noun, but adjectives that express personal affection or subjective emotion often go before it. Placing querido (dear) first emphasizes your fondness for this person rather than just literally describing them.
Does compañero always mean "classmate"?
Not always! Compañero is a versatile word that broadly means "companion" or "peer." Depending on the context, it can mean "classmate" (often specified as compañero de clase), "coworker" (compañero de trabajo), "roommate", or even a long-term partner. The English translation here uses "classmate" based on the implied context of the speaker's history.
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