长年累月

Pronunciation: cháng nián lěi yuè Literal meaning: Long years accumulated months

Origin & Usage

Long (长) years (年) and piled-up (累) months (月). Both halves say duration and neither adds information, which is the point: the redundancy is doing rhetorical work, making the stretch of time feel accumulated rather than merely elapsed. That is why it attaches so naturally to things that build up out of sight — a skill, a debt, a resentment, damp in a wall. Processes whose result is visible and whose progress never was.

Examples

English: "The damage was caused by years of neglect."

Chinese: 这些损坏是长年累月疏忽造成的。