Verb Voyager
Say how long, what just happened, and what suddenly started — with the right verb frame, out loud.
Llevar + gerundio is how Spanish says you've been doing something and still are: Llevo tres años estudiando medicina — I've been studying medicine for three years, no perfect tense required. Flip it with sin for time without: Llevaba meses sin verla cuando nos reencontramos. Around it sits a family of verb frames that pin an action to its exact moment: vengo de hablar con el gerente (I've just come from…), acabo de llegar a la oficina (I just arrived), and the inceptive pair se puso a llorar (suddenly started, with emotional charge) vs empecé a estudiar (a neutral start).
Below: each frame with its phrases, the regional shortcuts locals actually use, the pitfalls — and a way to practice them in live conversation, no drills, no conjugation tables.
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Regional Spanish
Textbooks teach one word. Locals use several — pick your region's and stay consistent.
| English | Mexico | Argentina |
|---|---|---|
| I just arrived | acabo de llegar, apenas | recién llegué |
| who knows / no idea | ¿quién sabe? | ni idea, che |
| no way around it, obligatorily | a fuerza | sí o sí |
| a good long while | un buen rato | bocha de tiempo |
Watch out
The part no drill site can do
Carla
Your grammar teacher for this pack
No periphrasis-selection drills, nothing to memorize first. In the Verb Voyager lessons you talk, and Carla makes you stack the frames on one activity: describing your week, she wants the same task told three ways — acabo de empezar, llevo haciendo…, ya termino. Then the inceptive contrast: tell her about something that suddenly started (me puse a llorar) versus something you simply began (empecé a estudiar) — and she presses on the difference until the frame arrives with the verb, automatically, mid-sentence.
Blank mid-sentence and nothing bad happens — she waits. That's the practice, without unnecessary judgement.
Finish the 6 lessons and Verb Voyager is yours — earned, not given.
First 10 lessons free · 10-minute spoken lessons · your AI coaching team remembers you
Quick answers
Conjugate llevar, add the time span, then the gerund: Llevo toda la mañana esperando tu llamada; Lleva viviendo en Lima desde que era niña. It's present tense in Spanish even though English needs 'have been doing'.
Llevar + sin + infinitivo: Llevo sin dormir casi dos días — I've gone almost two days without sleeping; Llevaba meses sin verla cuando nos reencontramos. Locals exaggerate it freely: lleva siglos sin aparecer.
Ponerse a is a sudden start with emotional charge: Se puso a gritar en plena reunión. Empezar a is the neutral 'began': Empezaron a construir la casa en primavera. Argentina has its own sudden-start idiom for rain: se largó a llover.
Recent origin — you've just come from doing it: Vengo de hablar con el gerente; La empresa viene de cerrar un año récord. It's a favorite in sports and business talk: venimos de una buena racha.
In the Southern Cone, recién + preterite does the job of acabar de: recién llegué = I just arrived; in Chile, recién me enteré. Mexico keeps acabar de and intensifies it instead: acabo de llegar, apenas.
