The basic meaning of the Spanish verb HACER is to make or to do.
You have probably heard it being used in sentences such as:
• Hago mi cama todas las mañanas. [I make my bed every morning.]
• Ayer hice mucha tarea. [I did a lot of homework yesterday.]
The 3rd person-singular form of HACER (HACE)
is also used to express some weather conditions:
• No podemos salir ahora; hace demasiado calor. [We can’t go outside right now; it is too hot.]
• Cuando llegamos a la cima, hacía mucho viento. [When we reached the summit, it was really windy.]
The same as the English verb TO MAKE, the Spanish verb HACER can also be used to express the result of an addition as a synonym of TO EQUAL:
• Cuatro y cinco hacen nueve. [Four and five make nine.]
However, in Spanish, this usage serves us also to express time.
It is as if we were using
HACER in the same way we use it when we add numbers, and we said something like:
“The time that has passed from that point to this point makes / equals four years.”
In Spanish, that would be like saying:
“El tiempo que ha pasado desde ese punto hasta este punto hace / suma cuatro años.”
But what we actually say is simply:
• hace cuatro años [it’s been four years / four years ago]
How to use HACER to express time
There are different ways in which we use HACER to express time.
The first thing that you must know is that we only use the 3rd person-singular form of the verb in this case.
This is because, as you have seen, HACER has no specific subject in this expression.
If we are expressing time passed from the past to the present, we use the present tense.
| HACER | PRESENT TENSE - indicative |
|---|---|
| yo | ha |
| tú | haces |
| él, ella / usted | hace |
| nosotros, nosotras | hacemos |
| vosotros, vosotras | hacéis |
| ellos, ellas / ustedes | hacen |
We only use the 3rd person-singular form HACE in time expressions.
How to use HACER to express the time passed since a past event
If we want to express the time that has passed since a past event occurred, we just need to use one of the Spanish perfective tenses (the preterite tense or the present perfect tense) for the verb that expresses that event and use HACER in the present tense for the time expression:
• Compré este coche hace tres años. [I bought this car three years ago.]
• Hemos llegado hace media hora. [We arrived half an hour ago.]
We tend to mention the past event first and add HACE + TIME afterwards, but it is also possible to do the opposite:
• Hace tres años compré este coche. [Three years ago, I bought this car.]
And we tend to start with HACE + TIME and introduce the event afterwards when we are speaking about a situation that started before that time and continued afterwards. Notice that we then use the imperfect tense:
• Hace siete años todavía vivía en Salmanca. [Seven years ago, I still lived in Salamanca.]
How to use HACE QUE to express time passed since a past event
When we want to express that there is some connection between the past event and the present, we can also use the expression HACE QUE:
• Hace tres años que compré este coche. [It has been three years since I bought this car.]
• Hace media hora que hemos llegado. [It has been half an hour since we arrived.]
Notice how, in this case, we put the time between HACE and QUE and mention the past event afterwards.
How to use HACE QUE to express the duration of a current ongoing event
As we have seen, the structure HACE + TIME + QUE expresses some connection between the past and the present. This allows us to use it also to express for how long a current event has been going on.
Notice how, in this case also, we put the time between HACE and QUE and mention the ongoing event afterwards.
In this case, however, we use the present tense to express the event.
If the event is a static event such as VIVIR [to live], for example, we use the simple present tense:
• Hace quince años que vivo en Madrid. [I have been living in Madrid for fifteen years.]
If the event is a dynamic event such as TRABAJAR [to work] and it is repeated habitually, we also use the simple present tense:
• Hace seis meses que María trabaja en nuestra empresa. [María has been working in our company for six months.]
However, if we are expressing a dynamic event that is taking place right now, we use the present progressive tense:
• Hace dos horas que estamos trabajando en este problema. [We have been working on this problem for two hours.]
How to use DESDE HACE to express the duration of a current ongoing event
The Spanish preposition DESDE [from / since] can be used to express the beginning of an event. For example:
• Vivimos en Valencia desde enero. [We live in Valencia since January.]
And we can also use it together with HACE to express the duration of a current ongoing event.
The tenses we use are the same ones as when we use HACE QUE for the same purpose.
However, we tend to introduce the event first and add DESDE HACE + TIME afterwards.
If the event is a static event such as VIVIR [to live], we use the simple present tense:
• Vivo en Madrid desde hace quince años. [I have been living in Madrid for fifteen years.]
If the event is a dynamic event such as TRABAJAR [to work] and it is repeated habitually, we also use the simple present tense:
• María trabaja en nuestra empresa desde hace seis meses. [María has been working in our company for six months.]
And, if we are expressing a dynamic event that is taking place right now, we use the present progressive tense:
• Estamos trabajando en este problema desde hace dos horas. [We have been working on this problem for two hours.]
The Spanish verb HACER is also used in other tenses in time expressions
We have learned how to express time passed from the past to the present in Spanish with the present tense of the verb HACER [to make].
But we can also, for example, express the time passed up to a past moment from a moment that is even further back in time. Since HACER is a verb after all, we must conjugate it accordingly.
In this case we use the imperfect tense of HACER:
| HACER | IMPERFECT TENSE - indicative |
|---|---|
| yo | hac |
| tú | hacías |
| él, ella / usted | hacía |
| nosotros, nosotras | hacíamos |
| vosotros, vosotras | hacíais |
| ellos, ellas / ustedes | hacían |
Remember that we only use the third person singular form: HACÍA.
Now, compare our examples using HACE (present tense indicative of HACER) with the new examples using HACÍA (imperfect tense indicative of HACER):
• Compré este coche hace tres años. [I bought this car three years ago.]
• Había comprado aquel coche hacía tres años. [I had bought that car three years ago.]
• Hemos llegado hace media hora. [We arrived half an hour ago.]
• Habíamos llegado hacía media hora. [We had arrived half an hour ago.]
• Hace tres años que compré este coche. [It has been three years since I bought this car.]
• Hacía tres años que había comprado aquel coche. [It had been three years since I had bought that car.]
• Hace media hora que hemos llegado. [It has been half an hour since we arrived.]
• Hacía media hora que habíamos llegado. [It had been half an hour since we had arrived.]
• Hace quince años que vivo en Madrid. [I have been living in Madrid for fifteen years.]
• Hacía quince años que vivía en Madrid. [I had been living in Madrid for fifteen years.]
• Hace seis meses que María trabaja en nuestra empresa. [María has been working in our company for six months.]
• Hacía seis meses que María trabajaba en nuestra empresa. [María had been working in our company for six months.]
• Hace dos horas que estamos trabajando en este problema. [We have been working on this problem for two hours.]
• Hacía dos horas que estábamos trabajando en aquel problema. [We had been working on that problem for two hours.]
• Vivo en Madrid desde hace quince años. [I have been living in Madrid for fifteen years.]
• Vivía en Madrid desde hacía quince años. [I had been living in Madrid for fifteen years.]
• María trabaja en nuestra empresa desde hace seis meses. [María has been working in our company for six months.]
• María trabajaba en nuestra empresa desde hacía seis meses. [María had been working in our company for six months.]
• Estamos trabajando en este problema desde hace dos horas. [We have been working on this problem for two hours.]
• Estábamos trabajando en aquel problema desde hacía dos horas. [We had been working on that problem for two hours.]
Although it is not that frequent, it is also possible to use HACER [to make] in other tenses to express time.
Check the full conjugation of HACER with the Light On Spanish conjugation charts.
Learn more time expressions with HACER in the next lesson.
I hope that this explanation about the use of Spanish verb HACER to express time was helpful.
If you have questions related to the Spanish language, don’t hesitate to let me know. I’ll be happy to answer them.