Breakdown of Hace dos años que vivo en Madrid.
en
in / on / by (means of transport) / about (after pensar)
vivir
to live
el año
the year
que
that (relative pronoun, conjunction)
dos
two
hacer
ago, for (time elapsed)
Questions & Answers about Hace dos años que vivo en Madrid.
Why is the present tense vivo used instead of a perfect tense like in English (have been living)?
In Spanish, when an action started in the past and is still continuing right now, you use the present tense. English uses the present perfect continuous for this, which makes it a tricky difference to remember. If you used the perfect tense (he vivido), it would sound more like a completed life experience rather than an ongoing action.
What exactly does the structure hace ... que mean here?
The formula hace + [amount of time] + que + [present tense verb] is the standard Spanish way to express how long you have been doing something. Literally, it translates to the slightly strange-sounding phrase: It makes two years that I live in Madrid.
Doesn't hace dos años normally mean two years ago?
It does, but only when paired with a past tense verb! If the sentence used the past tense, like Fui a Madrid hace dos años, it would mean I went to Madrid two years ago. Because our example sentence uses the present tense vivo, the meaning shifts to an ongoing duration (for two years).
Can I express this same idea without putting hace ... que at the start of the sentence?
Yes! You can flip the word order and use desde hace, which means for (literally since makes). You could say Vivo en Madrid desde hace dos años. Both versions are perfectly natural in Spain and mean the exact same thing.
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