Expressing duration of actions
To express how long an action or a situation has been continuing, Spanish uses:
Hace + time expression + que + present tense.
This action has been going on for a period of time and is still going on.
To ask how long something has been going on, Spanish uses:
¿Cuánto tiempo hace que + present tense?
| Consuelo |  ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que tu hermano sale con Eva? |
| Mireya | Hace dos años que mi hermano sale con Eva. |
Notice that you may answer a question posed this way simply by stating:
Expressing how long ago something happened
To tell how long ago an action or event occurred, Spanish uses the same hace…que construction, but with the verb in the preterite instead of the present tense:
Hace + time expression + que + preterite
The same idea may be expressed by starting the sentence with the verb phrase and placing hace + time at the end; in this case, que is omitted.
To ask how long ago something happened use:
¿Cuánto tiempo hace que + preterite?
