Hacer with expressions of time When you are talking about how long something has been happening or how long ago it happened, you will use the verb hacer. –You will only use the hace form of the verb. The basic formula is: –Hace + period of time + que + the present tense.
If you want to ask a question you will use the interrogative cuánto followed by tiempo. If you are talking about the past you will have to use the preterite. If you want to rearrange the sentence and have the preterite verb first you will not need que. –You should not change the order for simple present tense statements.
Unos ejemplos: I have been wanting to travel to Costa Rica for 4 years. –Hace cuatro años que quiero viajar a Costa Rica. I have been waiting for the plane for 5 hours. –Hace cinco horas que yo espero el avión. How long have you been waiting for the plane? –¿Cuánto tiempo hace que esperas el avión? How long have you studied Spanish? –¿Cuánto tiempo hace que estudias el español?
Más ejemplos: How long ago did you travel? –¿Cuánto tiempo hace que viajaste? It has been six years since I studied in Spain. –Hace seis años que estudié en España. We met 5 years ago. –Nos conocimos hace cinco años. I went to South Bend a month ago. –Fui a South Bend hace un mes.