Breakdown of Hacía horas que explorábamos el balcón podrido.
la hora
hour
que
that / than
el balcón
the balcony
explorar
to explore
Questions & Answers about Hacía horas que explorábamos el balcón podrido.
Why do we use hacía here instead of hace?
The English translation says 'had been exploring'. Why don't we use a past perfect tense for explorábamos?
English uses 'had been [doing something]' for actions ongoing up to a point in the past. Spanish uses a simpler approach for this specific time structure: hacía + [amount of time] + que + the imperfect tense (explorábamos). The imperfect naturally shows that the exploring was still in progress at that past moment.
Can I put the time expression at the end of the sentence?
What verb does the adjective podrido come from?
It comes from the verb pudrir, which means to rot or to decay. Podrido is its past participle, which is often used as an adjective (rotten). Notice that the stem changes from a u to an o.