A2
hace, desde hace, desde
How Spanish expresses duration and “ago” with hace, desde hace and desde, and which tense each requires.
hace + duration means ago
With a past tense.
Llegué hace dos horas.
I-arrived it-makes two hours
I arrived two hours ago.
Hace un año que se fue.
it-makes a year that himself he-went
He left a year ago.
desde hace + duration means for, and still going
With the present tense, where English uses a perfect. This is the rule worth learning deliberately.
Vivo aquí desde hace tres años.
I-live here since it-makes three years
I’ve lived here for three years.
He vivido aquí desde hace tres años.
Vivo aquí desde hace tres años.
A situation that is still true takes the present in Spanish. The perfect would suggest it has finished, which is the opposite of what desde hace means.
French does exactly the same thing with depuis, and English is the odd one out.
hace … que, with the present
The same idea with the pieces reordered.
Hace tres años que vivo aquí.
it-makes three years that I-live here
I’ve lived here for three years.
Identical in meaning to the sentence above. Both are common; neither is more correct.
desde marks a point, not a stretch
Vivo aquí desde 2020.
I-live here since 2020
I’ve lived here since 2020.
Desde takes a date or an event; desde hace takes a length of time. The difference is the same as English since against for.
durante is for a completed stretch
Viví en Madrid durante dos años.
I-lived in Madrid during two years
I lived in Madrid for two years.
Finished, so a past tense. Durante can be dropped: viví en Madrid dos años.
The three in one place
| hace tres años | three years ago |
| desde hace tres años | for three years, and still |
| durante tres años | for three years, finished |