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Mis parientes llegaron de México hace tres generaciones.

Mis parientes llegaron de México hace tres generaciones.
My relatives arrived from Mexico three generations ago.
From Lesson 107:Time ago (hace)·Spanish (Latin America)

Breakdown of Mis parientes llegaron de México hace tres generaciones.

de
from / of
México
Mexico
mi
my
llegar
to arrive
tres
three
hace
ago
el pariente
relative
la generación
generation

Questions & Answers about Mis parientes llegaron de México hace tres generaciones.

Wait, doesn't parientes mean "parents"?
No, this is a classic "false friend"! Parientes means "relatives" (like aunts, cousins, or grandparents). If you want to say "parents," you use the word padres.
How does hace work to mean "ago" in this sentence?
In Spanish, you use the formula hace + [amount of time] to express how long ago something happened. While in English we put "ago" after the time ("three generations ago"), Spanish puts hace before the time (hace tres generaciones).
Why is the verb llegaron in the preterite past tense here?
We use the preterite tense (llegaron) because arriving is a single, completed action in the past. Time expressions using hace for "ago" are almost always paired with the preterite tense for exactly this reason.
Could I put the time expression at the beginning of the sentence?
Yes! You can absolutely say Hace tres generaciones mis parientes llegaron de México. Both word orders are very common and mean the exact same thing.

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