Breakdown of Hacía un siglo que los habitantes no caminaban por aquí.
no
no, not
un
a, an (masculine)
los
the (masculine plural)
aquí
here
caminar
to walk
que
that / than
por
for / by / through / in/during (part of the day)
el siglo
century
hacer
(of time) for / ago
el habitante
inhabitant
Questions & Answers about Hacía un siglo que los habitantes no caminaban por aquí.
Why does the Spanish sentence use the imperfect caminaban instead of the past perfect to mean "had not walked"?
In English, we use "had not walked" to show how long something had not happened up to a point in the past. But in Spanish, because the state of "not walking" was still ongoing at that past moment, you use the imperfect tense. The formula hacía + [amount of time] + que + [imperfect] translates to "had been [doing/not doing] something for [amount of time]."
Can I change the word order and put the time expression at the end?
Why use por aquí instead of just aquí?
Por aquí translates to "around here" or "through here." Por is the go-to preposition for general movement through an area. If you just used aquí ("here"), it would sound like the inhabitants were stepping up and down in one exact, stationary spot.
Could I use hace instead of hacía in this sentence?
You could, but it changes the timeframe to the present! Hace un siglo que los habitantes no caminan por aquí means "The inhabitants haven't walked around here for a century" (up to right now). Using hacía and the imperfect caminaban shifts the whole scenario into the past, meaning "They had not walked around here" up to a specific moment in the past.
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