Spanish to French: llevo dos años describes an activity that is still continuing
Llevar does not mean carrying in this duration construction
Spanish Llevo dos años estudiando francés says that the study began two years ago and continues at the present reference point. The phrase does not describe carrying anything. Translating llevo as a transport verb would miss the grammatical function of the whole expression: it measures how long an activity has already been in progress.
French can express this with a present-tense verb and depuis: J’étudie depuis deux ans. The apparently simple present is compatible with a starting point in the past. It does not mean that the speaker has only just begun studying. The duration phrase links that earlier beginning to the current activity.
An ended course needs a different temporal reading
Compare the Spanish statement Estudié francés durante dos años. This presents a period of study as a bounded past event rather than explicitly saying it continues today. J’ai étudié pendant deux ans illustrates the corresponding completed-period reading in French. The two French examples differ in their treatment of the activity, not simply in a choice of synonyms for “for.”
In an enrolment conversation, the first Spanish sentence can explain the experience a continuing student has accumulated. The second can describe a former course before the student stopped. Giving both the same completed French past could imply that the current student has finished; giving both the ongoing present could imply that the former student still attends.
Pendant itself is not restricted to the past. The University of Texas grammar explains duration with pendant across different tenses. It is the combination of the verb tense, the duration expression, and the surrounding statement that supplies the reading. A rule equating pendant with “finished forever” would therefore be another translation error.
Elapsed time and the starting date answer different questions
Spanish Desde enero estudio francés identifies a starting date; Llevo dos años estudiando francés identifies an elapsed period. French depuis can introduce either kind of information, but the complement still matters. A date must not become a duration simply because the target uses the same preposition for both.
For example, a learner joining an intermediate class may have studied since January without having completed a full year. Replacing January with “one year” would invent experience. Conversely, changing an explicit two-year duration into an unspecified earlier starting point would discard the answer to a question about how much study the learner has completed so far.
The RAE dictionary also records temporal uses of llevar separately from its movement meanings. That separation is useful when reading a longer Spanish sentence: identify whether llevar introduces a period already spent in a situation before looking for a French verb. For this construction, preserving the ongoing time span can require dropping the apparent Spanish main verb entirely and letting French tense plus depuis express the relationship.
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