Breakdown of El perro no traga la medicina desde hace dos días.
no
no, not
el perro
the dog
el día
the day
dos
two
la medicina
medicine
desde
since / from (a starting point)
hacer
(of time) for / ago
tragar
to swallow
Questions & Answers about El perro no traga la medicina desde hace dos días.
Why does this sentence use the present tense traga when the English translation says "hasn't swallowed"?
In Spanish, when an action started in the past and is still happening (or in this case, still NOT happening) right now, you generally use the present tense. Because the dog's refusal is ongoing, we use the present tense no traga along with desde hace to show how long this situation has lasted.
What does desde hace mean here, and why not just use por?
Desde hace is used to express how long an ongoing situation has been happening up to the present moment. It translates to "for" in English, but literally means "since it makes." You use it with a specific length of time, like dos días. While por also translates to "for," it is typically used for the duration of an action that is already finished, rather than one that is still continuing today.
Can I replace la medicina with a pronoun in this sentence?
If I wanted to command the dog to swallow the medicine, how would the pronoun placement change?
This ties into your current lesson! If you give an affirmative command (telling someone to do something), the pronoun must attach to the very end of the verb. The informal command for tragar is traga. When you attach the pronoun la, it becomes trágala (Swallow it!). Notice we add an accent mark to keep the spoken stress on the original syllable.
Learn El perro no traga la medicina desde hace dos días and more in Spanish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free