Hacer

Hacer + Weather Expressions

Did you notice that with the weather terms, from the vocabulary section,  the word hace was used a lot?  This is because with weather expressions in Spanish, the verb hacer is used.  It is conjugated in the 3rd person singular form (in other words, the “he/she/it” form) of the present tense.

When hacer is used with weather, it is called an idiomatic expression.  It normally means “to do” or “to make,” but in the weather expressions it’s used in a special way that sounds odd to English speakers, but perfectly normal in Spanish.  For example:

Hace mucho frío.

Literal meaning:  “It makes much cold.”

True meaning:  It is very cold.

 

“Hacer” and Expressions of Time

Hacer can also be used to express the length of time an action has taken place.  For example:

Hace dos meses que estudio la música.

This means: I have been studying music for 2 months. Literally you are saying “It makes two months that I study music.” Again, it sounds weird in English but normal in Spanish.

The sentence construction is as follows:

Hace + time + que + present tense form of the verb

This is how you say how long you’ve been doing something.

Example:  Hace dos años que nosotros cantamos.  [We have been singing for two years.]

Practice! Can you translate these sentences into Spanish/English?

1. Jorge has been studying music for six months.

2. They have been working for 3 weeks.

3. Hace siete semanas que Pedro trabaja en el restaurante.

4. Hace nueve meses que escucho al presidente.

5. Hace un año que tú hablas español.

(Answers: Highlight the space below to reveal the answers!

  1.  Hace seis meses que Jorge estudia la música.
  2. Hace tres semanas que ellos trabajan.
  3. Pedro has been working in the restaurant for 7 weeks.
  4. I have been listening to the President for 9 months.
  5. You have been speaking Spanish for one year.)

 

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