2 diferent ways to say the same thing

Hola Lesley B

Both sentences express a similar idea but have slight differences due to their grammatical structures.

The first sentence, "El profesor llevaba hablando con el estudiante diez minutos cuando entramos en la habitación", uses the verbal perífrasis "llevar + gerundio" to emphasize the duration of the action leading up to the moment of reference — when "we entered the room". It highlights that the action was still happening at that moment. In this context, it means "The professor had been talking with the student for ten minutes when we entered the room".

The second sentence, "El profesor había estado hablando con el estudiante diez minutos cuando entramos en la habitación", uses the past perfect continuous "había estado hablando", which focuses on the action's duration before a past point in time. This structure implies that the action might have ended by the time "we entered", though this isn’t explicitly stated. In this sense, it also means "The professor had been talking with the student for ten minutes before we entered the room".

The key difference lies in the nuance. "Llevaba hablando" emphasizes that the action was ongoing at the specific moment of entering, while "había estado hablando" stresses the duration of the action and suggests that it may have ended or was still happening when the second action occurred. Both sentences are grammatically correct and context-dependent.

Un saludo

Silvia