How long ago and when: hace, desde, desde hace, dentro de
English gets by with one 'ago' and one 'in'. Spanish keeps four different constructions for this, and even people who have long spoken fluently mix them up. For example: “Nos mudamos hace diez años y vivimos aquí desde entonces” — We moved ten years ago and have lived here ever since. A rule from the Spanish course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
English gets by with one 'ago' and one 'in'. Spanish keeps four different constructions for this, and even people who have long spoken fluently mix them up.
Hace plus a span — 'that long ago'. The action is over: Llegué hace dos años, Se fueron hace un rato. The verb stands in the past, and hace never changes — it is not 'does' but a frozen form. English 'two years ago' maps onto it one to one.
Desde hace plus a span — 'for that long already'. The action continues: Vivo aquí desde hace dos años — I live here and still do. English draws the same line with the tense: 'I moved here two years ago' against 'I have been living here for two years'. The difference from the previous item is exactly this, and in English it is the verb that carries it.
Desde plus a point — 'since such-and-such a moment': desde enero, desde el lunes, desde que se fue. Not a span but the starting point — English 'since'.
Dentro de plus a span — 'in'. Only about the future: Vuelvo dentro de una hora. 'An hour later' in the past ('he came back an hour later') is said differently in Spanish: al cabo de una hora or una hora después. Saying dentro de about the past is impossible.
Two more pairs belong here. Llevar plus the gerund — the same meaning as desde hace, but shorter: Llevo dos años viviendo aquí. And hace … que: Hace dos años que vivo aquí — the same thing a third way. A Spaniard will pick any of the three, and all three sound natural.
Finally, durante — 'for': Estuvimos allí durante tres semanas. Often it is simply dropped: Estuvimos allí tres semanas — not a mistake but the norm.
Table
| in English | in Spanish | about what |
|---|---|---|
| two years ago | hace dos años | it is over |
| for two years now | desde hace dos años | still going on |
| for two years now | llevo dos años + gerund | the same, shorter |
| since January | desde enero | the starting point |
| in an hour (will be) | dentro de una hora | future only |
| an hour later (it was) | al cabo de una hora | past only |
| for three weeks | durante tres semanas | can be dropped |
By example
- Nos mudamos hace diez años y vivimos aquí desde entoncesWe moved ten years ago and have lived here ever since
- Llevo esperando desde hace media hora y el tren sale dentro de cinco minutosI have been waiting for half an hour and the train leaves in five minutes
- Al cabo de un año volvió al pueblo y no reconoció la calleA year later he returned to the village and did not recognize the street
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
How long ago and when: how does it work in Spanish?
English gets by with one 'ago' and one 'in'. Spanish keeps four different constructions for this, and even people who have long spoken fluently mix them up.
What does it look like in an example sentence Spanish?
“Nos mudamos hace diez años y vivimos aquí desde entonces” — We moved ten years ago and have lived here ever since. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.