Breakdown of Viajé al país de mis antepasados hace cuatro años.
de
from / of
el año
year
mi
my
viajar
to travel
al
to the
el país
the country
cuatro
four
el antepasado
ancestor
hace
ago
Questions & Answers about Viajé al país de mis antepasados hace cuatro años.
Why does the sentence use hace here when that usually means "he makes" or "he does"?
In Spanish, to say how long ago a completed action happened, you use the formula hace + [amount of time]. Even though the verb hacer usually means "to make" or "to do", in this specific time expression it translates to "ago". So, hace cuatro años simply means "four years ago".
Can I put hace cuatro años at the beginning of the sentence instead of the end?
Why is it al país instead of a el país?
In Spanish, whenever the preposition a (to) is followed immediately by the masculine article el (the), they must combine to form the contraction al. Because país is a masculine noun, we use al país (to the country).
Why is the verb viajé in the preterite tense here?
The preterite tense is used for actions that were fully completed in the past. Since the time expression hace cuatro años pinpoints that this trip was a finished event rather than an ongoing past habit, you need the preterite viajé (I traveled).
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