He estado + gerundio, and what Peruvians say instead
He estado hablando is haber in the present, plus estado, plus a gerund. It covers an action that started in the past and is still going. Spanish has two shorter ways of saying the same thing that Peruvians use far more often: llevo dos horas esperando, and espero desde hace dos horas.
Draft copy. Every claim needs a native-speaker check before publishing — the byline is what makes this citable, so it has to be earned.
What it does
He estado + gerund covers an action that began in the past and has not finished:
He estado cocinando toda la mañana. Ellos han estado trabajando desde las siete.
Three pieces, always in this order: haber conjugated, then the fixed word estado, then the -ando / -iendo form.
| haber | estado | gerund | |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | he | estado | esperando |
| tú | has | estado | comiendo |
| él / ella / usted | ha | estado | trabajando |
| nosotros | hemos | estado | saliendo |
| ustedes / ellos | han | estado | durmiendo |
Estado never changes. The gerund never changes. Only haber moves.
Pronouns go in front of the whole block, or stuck to the end of the gerund: me he estado sintiendo mal or he estado sintiéndome mal. Both are correct; the first is what you will hear.
The problem: English hands you this tense too often
“I’ve been living here for three years” is the natural English sentence. Its word-for-word Spanish, he estado viviendo acá por tres años, is grammatical and slightly heavy, and it is not the first thing a Peruvian would say.
Two lighter structures do most of this work.
Llevar + time + gerund. This is the one to learn properly.
- Llevo tres años viviendo acá. — I’ve been living here three years.
- Llevamos dos horas esperando. — We’ve been waiting two hours.
- ¿Cuánto tiempo llevas estudiando español? — How long have you been studying?
Llevar carries the duration, so no perfect tense is needed at all.
Desde / desde hace + the plain present. Spanish is happy to use the present for something still going on.
- Vivo acá desde el 2019.
- Trabajo en esa empresa desde hace cinco meses.
- Te espero desde las tres. — I’ve been waiting since three.
That last one catches English speakers out. Espero — present — where English insists on “have been waiting”. Spanish does not need the perfect because desde already says the action is still running.
So when is he estado + gerundio the right pick
When you want to stress that the activity itself has been going on repeatedly or exhaustingly over a recent stretch, rather than simply state how long:
- He estado durmiendo mal últimamente. — complaining about a pattern.
- ¿Has estado tomando el jarabe? — checking on repeated behaviour.
- Hemos estado viendo departamentos. — an ongoing project, no end date given.
- No he estado yendo al gimnasio. — a habit that has lapsed.
Notice none of these carry a “for X time” phrase. That is the tidy split: if you are stating a duration, llevar or desde; if you are describing recent ongoing activity, he estado + gerund.
The gerund is where the errors are
Regular: -ar → -ando, -er / -ir → -iendo. The ones people get wrong:
- dormir → durmiendo, pedir → pidiendo, decir → diciendo, venir → viniendo
- leer → leyendo, creer → creyendo, oír → oyendo, ir → yendo
He estado leendo is the single most common slip. It is leyendo.
Try it
Say each one the way a Peruvian would:
- I’ve been waiting for you for an hour.
- She’s been feeling ill all week.
- How long have you been working there?
→ 1 Te estoy esperando desde hace una hora or Llevo una hora esperándote. · 2 Ha estado sintiéndose mal toda la semana — a pattern, so the perfect progressive fits. · 3 ¿Cuánto tiempo llevas trabajando ahí?
Next
→ Estar + gerundio: the present progressive → The present perfect, and why Peru uses it less → Estaré haciendo: the future progressive
Topics The pastPeruvian Spanish
He estado, llevo, or desde?
The tense is easy to build and easy to overuse. These seven are about picking it only where it beats the shorter options.
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1The most natural way to ask a Peruvian how long they have been studying Spanish is:
Answer
¿Cuánto tiempo llevas estudiando español? — *Llevar* plus a time plus a gerund is the everyday way to ask about duration. The first option is correct Spanish but heavier than anyone in Lima would actually say.
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2Mi hermana ___ toda la mañana. Creo que está enferma.
Answer
ha estado estornudando — The sneezing started earlier and is still going, which is exactly what this tense is for. *Había estado* would need a past reference point to sit before.
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3Llevo tres años ___ acá.
Answer
viviendo — *Llevar* plus a time is always followed by the gerund. This one sentence replaces the whole *he estado viviendo por tres años* construction.
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4He estado ___ el periódico todas las mañanas.
Answer
leyendo — *Leer* gives *leyendo* — an i between two vowels turns into a y. Same group as *creyendo*, *oyendo* and *yendo*.
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5¿Cuál oración expresa una acción que empezó en el pasado y sigue ahora?
Answer
He estado estudiando allí por varios años. — Only the second keeps the action running into the present. The other three close it off somewhere in the past.
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6Vivo en Lima ___ cinco meses.
Answer
desde hace — *Desde hace* plus a time with the plain present covers English “I have been living”. Spanish needs no perfect tense once *desde* is doing the work.
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7No he estado ___ bien últimamente.
Answer
durmiendo — *Dormir* changes its stem in the gerund: *durmiendo*. *He estado dormido* would mean you have been asleep — a state, not the pattern you are complaining about.