Breakdown of Llevamos dos días investigando ese ciberataque.
el día
the day
ese
that (masculine)
dos
two
investigar
to investigate / to research
llevar
to have been (doing) for a time
el ciberataque
cyberattack
Questions & Answers about Llevamos dos días investigando ese ciberataque.
Why use llevamos here instead of hemos estado to mean "we have been"?
In Spanish, the most natural and idiomatic way to say you have been doing something for a specific amount of time (and are still doing it) is the structure llevar + time period + gerund. While hemos estado investigando por dos días is grammatically understandable, native speakers overwhelmingly prefer the llevar structure for ongoing time frames.
The current lesson is about the state passive (estar + past participle). Could we describe this situation using estar investigado?
No, because the state passive strictly describes the completed result of an action. Since we are still actively looking into the attack right now (investigando), the action isn't finished yet. You would only use the state passive once the case is closed and you want to describe its resolved status: El ciberataque ya está investigado (The cyberattack is already investigated).
Is there a preposition missing? In English we say "for two days", so shouldn't there be a por or durante before dos días?
Why is it ese ciberataque and not eso ciberataque?
Ese is the masculine singular adjective for "that", directly modifying the masculine noun ciberataque (since ataque is masculine). Eso is a neuter pronoun used only for abstract ideas, situations, or unknown objects (like asking "What is that?" -> ¿Qué es eso?), and it is never placed directly next to a noun.
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