📖LearnModule 7 · Lesson 7 of 30Independent User · CEFR B1, completedUnit 2 · La salud y el cuerpo
Desde hace, hace… que, durante
Module 7 of the free Spanish course (CEFR B1, completed), lesson 7 of 30: A handful of little phrases carry time in Spanish. On this page: 9 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line, the conjugation table and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's QR.
The words
Spanish
English
Say it
desde hace tres días
for three days (and still)
DEHS-deh AH-seh trehs DEE-ahs
hace dos días
two days ago
AH-seh dohs DEE-ahs
durante diez horas
for ten hours
doo-RAHN-teh dyehs OH-rahs
dentro de una semana
in a week from now
DEHN-troh deh OO-nah seh-MAH-nah
la duración
the length of time
lah doo-rah-SYOHN
caerse
to fall down
kah-EHR-seh
volver
to come back
bohl-BEHR
¿desde cuándo?
since when?
DEHS-deh KWAHN-doh
tú toses mucho
you cough a lot
too TOH-sehs MOO-choh
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
La regla · The rule
A handful of little phrases carry time in Spanish, and English speakers mix them up constantly. Desde hace means for, and it takes the PRESENT: toso desde hace tres días — I have been coughing for three days, and I still am. Hace tres días que toso says the same, with hace in front.
Y también · And also
Hace on its own means ago and takes a past: me caí hace dos días. Durante means for a finished stretch: dormí durante diez horas. Dentro de means in, pointing forward: vuelvo dentro de una semana.
Ojo · Watch out
desde hace takes the PRESENT for something still going on: toso desde hace tres días. hace + time + a past tense means ago: me caí hace dos días. Same word, two jobs — the tense decides.
toser, presente — the table
yo toso · tú toses · él/ella/usted tose · nosotros tosemos · ustedes tosen · ellos/ellas tosen
Do it now — on paper
Say all 9 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with desde hace tres días.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out toser, presente in full from memory, every person, and check each form against the table above.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The Spanish Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.