Section 10.5 - hace vs desde hace

My understanding is that ‘hace cinco anos’ means ‘five years ago’, and ‘desde hace cinco anos’ means ‘for five years’ - but the below 3 answers and translations in this module do not seem consistent with this understanding…….can anyone explain why ??

• 6/43 - “I have been waiting in line for two hours -  translation is ”hace dos horas que hago cola" 
• 11 / 43 - “we have been waiting for ten minutes - translation is ”hace diez minutos que esperamos" 
• 15/43 - “I have been studying spanish for two months - translation is ”hace dos meses que estudio espanol'

¡Hola, Jaimes-A!

Thanks for your question!

The trick is that these sentences use the construction hace … que, and this construction can give you the meaning of either “for” or “ago”; it depends on the tense that the verb is in. 

So in the example sentences that you've provided, all of the verbs are in the present tense el presente:

• hago = "(I) make / do"
• esperamos = "(we) wait"
• estudio = "(I) study"

When the verb is in el presente like this, the hace … que construction indicates how long an action has been going on for. So the English equivalent would be to use the present perfect (i.e. the “has done” tense) or the present perfect continuous (i.e. the “have been doing” tense) and the word “for.” For example: “I have been waiting in line for two hours.”

When the verb is in the past tense el pretérito, though, then the hace … que construction indicates how long ago an action happened. So the English equivalent would be to use the past simple (i.e. the “did” tense) and the word “ago.” For example: “We moved to Montevideo a year ago.”

This might be a bit difficult to grasp in this short format, but you can find full explanations on all of this (togther with examples and color-coded formulas) in Lesson 10.5: "Since When and For How Long?" The explanation on using hace … que with el presente is in the section titled "Using 'For' to Talk About Time" and the explanation on using hace … que with el pretérito is in the section titled “Using ‘Ago.’”

I hope that this helps. Do let me know if you still have any questions!

Saludos,

Liss