Hacer Conjugation: Major Tenses, Uses and Examples

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This guide gives you the hacer conjugation in the major tenses, along with the everyday expressions that make the verb useful.

I’ll lay out hacer across the major tenses, with tables you can return to when you’re stuck. You’ll also see how it works in weather and time expressions, as well as common phrases. Hacer often means “to do” or “to make”, but context determines the best English translation.

Hacer is irregular, but its main irregularities cluster around a few forms and stems: hago, hic-, har-, haz and hecho. Learning those patterns makes the tables easier to navigate.

You’ll meet hacer in questions and statements such as ¿Qué tiempo hace? (“What’s the weather like?”), Hace dos años que estudio (“I’ve been studying for two years”) and ¿Me haces un favor? (“Will you do me a favour?”). Learn these as complete phrases as well as studying the forms.

What Makes Hacer Irregular

Before the tables, here’s a map of the main irregular patterns:

• Present tense: the yo form is hago (a g sneaks in), which then ripples into the present subjunctive and the usted command.
• Preterite: a special stem gives hice, hiciste, hizo and the other forms. These irregular preterite forms carry no written accent. Watch the third person: it’s spelled hizo, not “hico”. The spelling changes from c to z before o to preserve the consonant sound heard in hice.
• Future and conditional: the stem shortens to har-, so it's haré and haría, never “haceré”.
• Participle and command: the past participle is hecho, completely irregular, and the tú command is haz.

The tables below show the standard tú and vosotros forms. If you are learning a variety that uses vos, check the local voseo forms as well.

Hacer Conjugation: Present Tense

The present (presente) is your day-to-day “do” and “make”. Only the yo form is irregular here.

Pronoun	Conjugation	English
yo	hago	I do/make
tú	haces	you do/make
él/ella/usted	hace	he/she does, you do
nosotros/as	hacemos	we do/make
vosotros/as	hacéis	you all do/make
ellos/ellas/ustedes	hacen	they/you all do

Example: Hago la cena todas las noches. (I make dinner every night.)

Hacer Conjugation: Preterite Tense

The preterite (pretérito) often presents an action as completed. Its irregular stem and the spelling of hizo make this a useful table to practise carefully.

Pronoun	Conjugation	English
yo	hice	I did/made
tú	hiciste	you did/made
él/ella/usted	hizo	he/she did, you did
nosotros/as	hicimos	we did/made
vosotros/as	hicisteis	you all did/made
ellos/ellas/ustedes	hicieron	they/you all did

Example: Ayer hice todos mis deberes. (Yesterday I did all my homework.)

Note the stress: unlike regular preterites, hice and hizo are stressed on the first syllable, not the ending.

Hacer Conjugation: Imperfect Tense

The imperfect (imperfecto) can describe ongoing, repeated or background past actions. Its forms follow the regular pattern for -er verbs.

Pronoun	Conjugation	English
yo	hacía	I was doing/making, I used to do
tú	hacías	you were doing/making
él/ella/usted	hacía	he/she was doing
nosotros/as	hacíamos	we were doing/making
vosotros/as	hacíais	you all were doing
ellos/ellas/ustedes	hacían	they were doing

Example: De niño hacía deporte cada día. (As a child I used to do sport every day.)

Hacer Conjugation: Future Tense

The future (futuro) uses the shortened stem har-, then the regular future endings. Learn the stem once and the whole column follows.

Pronoun	Conjugation	English
yo	haré	I will do/make
tú	harás	you will do/make
él/ella/usted	hará	he/she will do
nosotros/as	haremos	we will do/make
vosotros/as	haréis	you all will do
ellos/ellas/ustedes	harán	they will do

Example: Mañana haré una tarta. (Tomorrow I'll make a cake.)

Hacer Conjugation: Conditional Tense

The conditional (condicional), used for “would do/make”, shares the same har- stem as the future.

Pronoun	Conjugation	English
yo	haría	I would do/make
tú	harías	you would do/make
él/ella/usted	haría	he/she would do
nosotros/as	haríamos	we would do/make
vosotros/as	haríais	you all would do
ellos/ellas/ustedes	harían	they would do

Example: Yo haría las cosas de otra manera. (I would do things differently.)

Hacer Conjugation: Present Perfect

The present perfect (pretérito perfecto) is built from the present of haber plus the past participle. And here's where hacer‘s irregular participle hecho earns its keep.

Pronoun	Conjugation	English
yo	he hecho	I have done/made
tú	has hecho	you have done/made
él/ella/usted	ha hecho	he/she has done
nosotros/as	hemos hecho	we have done/made
vosotros/as	habéis hecho	you all have done
ellos/ellas/ustedes	han hecho	they have done

Example: ¿Has hecho la reserva? (Have you made the booking?)

Don't confuse the participle hecho with echo (from echar, “to throw”). They sound identical but one has an h. He hecho (I have done) vs echo (I throw). The h is the tell.

Hacer Conjugation: Present Subjunctive

The present subjunctive (presente de subjuntivo) starts from the irregular yo form hago, swaps in subjunctive endings, and gives the stem hag- all the way through.

Pronoun	Conjugation
yo	haga
tú	hagas
él/ella/usted	haga
nosotros/as	hagamos
vosotros/as	hagáis
ellos/ellas/ustedes	hagan

Example: Quiero que hagas tu cama. (I want you to make your bed.)

Hacer Conjugation: Imperfect Subjunctive

The imperfect subjunctive (imperfecto de subjuntivo) is formed from the third-person plural preterite hicieron: remove -ron, then add the relevant ending. Spanish has -ra and -se sets. They are equivalent in many subjunctive uses, although preference and frequency vary by region and context.

Pronoun	-ra form	-se form
yo	hiciera	hiciese
tú	hicieras	hicieses
él/ella/usted	hiciera	hiciese
nosotros/as	hiciéramos	hiciésemos
vosotros/as	hicierais	hicieseis
ellos/ellas/ustedes	hicieran	hiciesen

Example: Si hiciera buen tiempo, iríamos a la playa. (If the weather were good, we'd go to the beach.)

Hacer Conjugation: Imperative (Commands)

Commands are where you tell someone to do something, or not to. The affirmative tú form is the irregular haz; the negative commands lean on the subjunctive hag- stem.

Pronoun	Affirmative	Negative
tú	haz	no hagas
usted	haga	no haga
nosotros/as	hagamos	no hagamos
vosotros/as	haced	no hagáis
ustedes	hagan	no hagan

Example: Haz tu trabajo, pero no hagas ruido. (Do your work, but don't make noise.)

If the negative side feels shaky, it's worth getting comfortable with how Spanish negatives work generally. Our guide to saying “no” in Spanish covers the broader pattern.

Hacer: Gerund and Past Participle

Two non-finite forms round out the picture:

• Gerund (present participle): haciendo (“doing/making”). Use it for the continuous, as in Estoy haciendo la comida (I'm making the food). If the gerund is new to you, here's what a gerund is with examples.
• Past participle: hecho (“done/made”), the irregular form you met above. It powers all the perfect tenses and also works as an adjective: un trabajo bien hecho (a job well done).

The Many Uses of Hacer

Now let’s look at common uses of hacer beyond the tables.

To Do and To Make

Hacer often corresponds to English “do” or “make”. The natural translation depends on the expression.

• hacer la tarea: to do the homework
• hacer la cama: to make the bed
• hacer ejercicio: to do or get exercise
• hacer un pastel: to make a cake

Talking About the Weather

Many common weather phrases use the impersonal third-person singular form hace:

Spanish	English
Hace frío	It's cold
Hace calor	It's hot
Hace sol	It's sunny
Hace viento	It's windy
Hace buen tiempo	The weather is nice
Hace mal tiempo	The weather is bad

Example: Hoy hace mucho calor, pero ayer hizo frío. (Today it's very hot, but yesterday it was cold.)

For general cold weather, say hace frío, rather than using es frío or está frío with the same meaning. Other weather descriptions can use different verbs, such as está nublado (“it’s cloudy”). Our guide to ser vs estar explains how those two verbs work in other descriptions.

Time Expressions: “Ago” and “For”

Several common hacer constructions correspond to English “ago” and “for a length of time”.

• hace + [time] = “[time] ago”: Llegué hace dos horas. (I arrived two hours ago.)
• hace + [time] + que + [verb] = “have been -ing for”: Hace tres años que vivo aquí. (I've lived here for three years.)
• desde hace + [time] = “for”: Estudio español desde hace seis meses. (I've been studying Spanish for six months.)

These patterns let you say when something happened or how long an activity has continued. For clock time and related vocabulary, see our guide to telling the time in Spanish.

Hacerse: To Become

The pronominal verb hacerse can mean “to become”, especially for a profession, affiliation or change that develops over time. The exact sense depends on context:

• Se hizo médico. (He became a doctor.)
• Se hizo rico trabajando duro. (He became rich by working hard.)
• Se hace tarde. (It's getting late.)

Everyday Set Phrases with Hacer

Spanish has many fixed expressions built on hacer. Here are several common examples:

Expression	Meaning
hacer una pregunta	to ask a question
hacer caso	to pay attention / heed
hacer la maleta	to pack the suitcase
hacer un favor	to do a favour
hacer cola	to queue / stand in line
hacer falta	to be needed / lacking
hacer un viaje	to take a trip
hacer las compras	to do the shopping

Example: ¿Me haces un favor? Quiero hacerte una pregunta. (Will you do me a favour? I want to ask you a question.)

Notice hacer una pregunta for “ask a question”. Spanish can also use preguntar directly, as in quiero preguntarte algo (“I want to ask you something”). For more high-frequency building blocks, see our roundup of common Spanish words.

Common Mistakes with Hacer

Watch for these common learner errors:

1. Misspelling the third-person preterite. The spelling changes to preserve the consonant sound before o: it’s hizo, not “hico”.
2. Keeping the full stem in the future. The future and conditional use the short stem har-: it's haré and haría, never “haceré” or “hacería”.
3. Using the wrong construction for general cold weather. It’s hace frío, not es frío or está frío, when you mean that the weather is cold.
4. Muddling the participle with its soundalike. Hecho (with h) is the participle of hacer; echo (no h) is “I throw” from echar. They sound the same, so the spelling carries the meaning.
5. Combining two question constructions. For a clear default, use hacer una pregunta or preguntar algo.
6. Forgetting the g in the present tense. The yo form is hago, not “haco” or “hace”, for “I do”.

Putting Hacer to Work

Here’s how I’d turn the reference tables into active practice:

1. Start with the present and preterite. Practise the forms you need for your own conversations, paying particular attention to hago, hice and hizo.
2. Learn weather and time phrases as chunks. Practise hace frío, hace dos años and desde hace inside complete sentences.
3. Add set phrases one at a time. Choose expressions that match situations you actually discuss.
4. Use them in speech. Ask ¿Qué tiempo hace?, say how long you’ve studied or ask someone to do you a favour. Feedback from a teacher or conversation partner can help you catch errors.

Using a verb with other people helps turn recognition into recall. If you’d like structured speaking practice, the Fluent in 3 Months Bootcamp is designed around having real conversations and receiving support as you learn.

Choose three forms and one expression from this guide, then use each of them in a sentence about your own life.