Breakdown of Hace un mes que no visito la farmacia, así que voy hoy después de clase.
Questions & Answers about Hace un mes que no visito la farmacia, así que voy hoy después de clase.
In Spanish, to express how long it’s been since you last did something, you use:
- Hace + [period of time] + que + [present tense negative]
So Hace un mes que no visito… literally “it makes one month that I don’t visit,” but functionally means “I haven’t visited… for a month.” You don’t switch to the simple past because the structure itself conveys the idea of “since one month ago up to now.”
Yes, both are perfectly correct and common:
- Hace un mes que no he visitado la farmacia. (Combines the “hace … que” frame with present perfect.)
- No he visitado la farmacia en un mes. (Uses present perfect and en to say “in a month.”)
Differences in nuance:
• The first keeps the classic “hace … que” construction, emphasizing elapsed time.
• The second is a straightforward present perfect statement.
All three mean essentially the same thing.
Both express “I haven’t been there for a month,” but:
• Hace un mes que no visito… (lit. “It makes one month that I don’t visit…”)
• Llevo un mes sin visitar… (lit. “I carry one month without visiting…”)
Llevo … sin + infinitive focuses on your ongoing state (you “carry” the month of non-visits), while Hace … que no + present frames it as an external time maker. They’re interchangeable in most contexts.
Así que means “so” or “therefore.” It indicates a logical consequence. You could also say:
• Por eso voy hoy después de clase.
• Así voy hoy después de clase. (less common)
• Entonces voy hoy después de clase. (more neutral “then”)
Yes. All of these are grammatically correct:
• Hoy voy después de clase. (emphasizes today)
• Voy después de clase hoy. (a bit redundant, but stresses after class then clarifies today)
• Voy hoy después de clase. (neutral)
Shifting the adverbs changes slight emphasis but not the overall meaning.
Spanish accent rules say:
• Words ending in a vowel, n, or s are stressed on the next-to-last syllable by default.
• farmacia (far-ma-CIA) and visito (vi-SI-to) naturally stress the penultimate syllable, so no written accent is needed.
If you tried farmácia, you’d break the rule and change the pronunciation away from standard Spanish.