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El artesano usa estas herramientas desde hace un mes.

El artesano usa estas herramientas desde hace un mes.
The artisan has been using these tools for a month.
From Lesson 121:Ongoing duration (desde hace)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about El artesano usa estas herramientas desde hace un mes.

The English translation says "has been using", but usa is in the present tense. Why?
In Spanish, when an action started in the past and is still happening right now, you use the present tense combined with a time expression like desde hace. Since the artisan is still using the tools, we use the present tense usa instead of a complex "has been" construction.
What exactly does desde hace mean in this sentence?
Desde hace translates to "for" when you are talking about the duration of an ongoing action. It literally means something like "since it makes" (desde = since, hace = makes/ago), but together with a time period like un mes (a month), it just tells us how long the action has been happening.
Why is it estas herramientas and not estos herramientas?
The word herramientas (tools) is a feminine plural noun. Words that mean "this" or "these" have to match the gender and number of the noun they describe, so we use the feminine plural estas instead of the masculine plural estos.
Could I put desde hace un mes at the beginning of the sentence?
Yes! You can absolutely say Desde hace un mes el artesano usa estas herramientas. In Spanish, time phrases like this can often go at the beginning or the end of the sentence without changing the meaning.

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