Need help on Page 38 Examples of Advanced Spanish Book

I am looking at the following statement, "Hace tres añ0s que estudio." I have a question on the "estudio". The book translates this as "I've studied for three years." or " I've been studying for three years". I think that "estudio" is the Yo form of the present tense for Estudiar. I don't see how one gets the past tense, which looks like past progressive, out of "estudio" in this sentence. Thank you for your help in this. Henk Roelant

Henk, I think this is how it works: In the case of Hace + an amount of time + que, the present tense of the verb translates to I have been ___ing for the specified amt of time. With your example, the preterite tense of the verb changes the translation to I studied three years ago. Hope that helps. spinpdx

Thank you, but I'm still a little unclear of what is happening with the conversion of the present tense you form to a past tense using hacer , an amount of time, que. Henk Roelant

The trick is not to expect Spanish to be exactly like English. *Hace* + a period of time + *que* + a verb in the present tense is translated into English as "has/have (been) doing something for a period of time. For example, *¿Cuánto tiempo hace que estudias español? * is translated as "How long have you studied/been studying Spanish? Perhaps it might help if you think of this somewhat awkward translation: How long are you studying Spanish? We don't really say that in English, but I think if you heard someone say that, you'd understand that s/he was saying "How long have you been studying Spanish?