Spanish · Chapter 18 · Lesson 14 · Grammar primer
Saying how long: hace and desde
hace dos anos que..., desde hace, desde, and hace + time for 'ago'. The patterns for duration and time-since, with the present-tense trap.
The short version
Still going means the present tense
English reaches for a perfect to say how long something has gone on. Spanish stays stubbornly in the present, because the situation has not stopped. Hace dos años que vivo aquí means I have lived here for two years, and vivo is the verb you want, not he vivido. Drill that tense mismatch first.
Hace dos años que vivo aquí.
Desde takes a point, desde hace takes a stretch
Look at what follows the word. A point in time, a date, a day, a clock time, takes plain desde: vivo aquí desde 2020, trabajo aquí desde el lunes. A length of time takes desde hace: vivo aquí desde hace dos años. Desde dos años and desde hace 2020 are both wrong.
Vivo aquí desde 2020.
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