Breakdown of Hacía mucho tiempo que él alucinaba con los barcos.
él
he
mucho
many / a lot
los
the (masculine plural)
con
with
el tiempo
time
el barco
boat
que
that / than
hacer
(of time) for / ago
alucinar
to hallucinate
Questions & Answers about Hacía mucho tiempo que él alucinaba con los barcos.
Why does the English translation use "had been hallucinating" but the Spanish uses the imperfect tense alucinaba?
In Spanish, when an action started in the past and was still going on at another point in the past, we use the imperfect tense combined with hacía. So, hacía mucho tiempo que... alucinaba translates naturally to "had been hallucinating for a long time." While you could theoretically use a direct translation of the past perfect continuous (había estado alucinando), this hacía + time + que + imperfect structure is the most natural and standard way to express this timeframe.
Could alucinaba mean something other than literally "hallucinating" in this context?
Yes! While it can literally mean to hallucinate, alucinar con is very commonly used colloquially to mean "to be amazed by," "to be crazy about," or "to be obsessed with." Depending on the context, a very natural translation for this sentence could be, "He had been obsessed with ships for a long time."
Why do we use the preposition con instead of sobre or de for "about"?
The verb alucinar specifically pairs with the preposition con when you introduce the thing causing the hallucination or amazement. You can think of it as hallucinating "with" the ships, even though in English we say hallucinating "about" or being obsessed "with."
If I put the time expression at the end of the sentence, do I still use the word que?
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