Translate the following sentence into German: "I have been playing the piano for five years."
Answer: "Ich spiele seit fünf Jahren das Klavier". A common mistake made by students of German would be to say: "Ich habe seit fünf Jahren das Klavier gespielt". This is because the concept of an ongoing action started at a specified point in the past is expressed using "have been + -ing" in English (i.e. the present perfect progressive, but don't worry about the technical name for now), whereas in German the simple present is used.
EB
Related German GCSE answers
All answers ▸What are the differences between the various 'you' forms in German?
What is the difference bewteen "um zu" and "damit"?
Translate into German: My friends and I like to help old people. We have no time now because we get a lot of homework. Last week I went shopping for my grandmother when she was ill and she gave me some money. I will use it for my holiday
How do I differentiate between haben and sein verbs when using perfect past?