Don’t make mistakes when talking about the past: The use of desde, hace, desde hace, and llevar

Typically when communicating in your second language, even if you miss a few words or use a wrong one, you can be understood.

However, sometimes small words can change the entire meaning of a sentence, so it’s important to pay closer attention to these types of words.

In Spanish, this often comes up when speaking about the past. There is quite a difference, for example, when you say, ‘I’ve been somewhere for 3 years’ vs ‘I went there 3 years ago’. And if you don’t get it right, your conversation can become very confusing very quickly.

Therefore, we’ve put together the follow list of often confused phrases so you can be sure you get it right when talking about your past experiences, how long you’ve been some where, or how long since you’ve been somewhere, etc.

Before you look at the english version, see if you can understand the exact significance of the Spanish phrase before you read the English translation.

Hace 3 años fui a España
3 years ago I went to Spain

Hace 3 años que estoy en España
I’ve been in Spain 3 years

Vivo desde el 5 de Abril en España
I’ve lived in Spain since April 5

Vivo desde hace 3 años en España
I’ve lived in Spain for 3 years

Yo llevo tres años en España
I’ve been in Spain for 3 years

Here are some example using them in question and answer format, which is where most of us get tripped up:

Question:
¿Desde cuándo estás en España?
You’ve been in Spain since when?

Answer:
Desde Marzo
Since March

Question:
¿Cuanto tiempo llevas viviendo en España?
How long have you been living in Spain?

Possible answers:
Llevo 3 años (or llevo viviendo 3 años)
I’ve been in Spain 3 years (or I’ve been living in Spain 3 años)

Estoy aquí desde hace 3 años
I’ve been here for 3 years

Hace 3 años que estoy en España
I’ve been in Spain for 3 years

Make sure you noted the difference between desde and desde hace as well as the difference between hace and hace … que.

Desde vs Desde Hace

The use of desde must be followed by a specific date, like ‘March’, or ‘April 5’.  Whereas the use of desde hace requires a period of time, like ‘3 months’, or ‘3 years’.  If you think about it, it’s the same in English:  we can say, ‘I have been here since April’, but we can’t say, ‘I have been here since 3 months’.  For that you have to remove the ‘since’ or replace it with ‘for’.

Hace vs Hace Que

With hace the additional que is very important as it distinguishes whether something happened that long ago or if it has been continuing to go on.  When you just say ‘hace’ it means ‘ago’, but hace + tiempo + que … means you have been doing something for 3 years.

In general, desde hace and hace … que have very similar meanings, indicating how long something has been taking place:

Estudio español desde hace seis meses
Hace seis meses que estudio español

Both mean: I have been studying Spanish for 6 months

We hope you found this article helpful. If so please consider sharing it or like it 😉 Also, in case you missed it, our last article features more about that tricky Spanish verb llevar, which you can check out here.

Un saludo,

Hayley & Maider