Spanish questions? (help!)?

Question

Traduzcanse las frases al espanol, de dos maneras, sugun los ejemplos.

Ejemplo: How long have you been studying Spanish?

a. Cuanto tiempo hace que Ud. estudia el espanol?

b. Desde cuando estudia Ud. el espanol?

ok and the question is:

How long have you been reading?

a.

b.

do i just follow the example and start my answer with Cuanto and Desde? what does desde mean? can someone please translate/answer please?

Answer 1

"Desde" can mean either "from" or "since"; depending upon the context.

So here are some valid translations for your sentence:

a.- Cuánto tiempo has estado leyendo? or

Cuánto has estado leyendo?

("Cuanto", refering to reading automatically gives the idea of time, so saying "tiempo" is sort of redundant)

b.- Desde cuándo has estado leyendo?

or "Desde cuando estas leyendo?" (not so accurate, because the verb is being changed from present perfect to present tense).

I believe the first one is more accurate; the second choice, if translated to english, would be "Since when have you been reading?"

It is the same idea, which makes it a valid translation; but with differenty words.

Answer 2

Even though your teacher didn't pick a very good verb for this, since it is ambiguous, just follow the example given.

a. ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que Ud. lee?

b. ¿Desde cuándo lee Ud.?

¿desde cuándo? = since when?

Cámbiese la forma del verbo en letra cursiva, empleando las sujetos indicados. = Change the form of the verb in italics, using the subjects given.