Word
Hace una hora que estamos registrando la sala.
Meaning
We have been searching the room thoroughly for an hour.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Hace una hora que estamos registrando la sala.
What does hace una hora que mean in this sentence?
In this pattern, hace una hora que means for an hour now or it’s been an hour since the action started.
So:
Hace una hora que estamos registrando la sala
= We’ve been searching/inspecting the room for an hour
A very useful pattern is:
Hace + time period + que + present tense
It describes something that started in the past and is still happening now.
Why is hace in the present tense if the action started in the past?
Because Spanish uses hace literally as it makes / it has been in this kind of time expression.
So Hace una hora que... is like saying:
It has been an hour that...
Even though the action began in the past, the sentence is measuring the time up to the present moment, so hace stays in the present.
Compare:
- Hace una hora = an hour ago
- Hace una hora que estamos registrando la sala = we’ve been searching the room for an hour
The presence of que plus a present-tense verb changes the meaning.
What is que doing in Hace una hora que estamos registrando la sala?