Hacer Conjugation: Full Table and Examples
This guide will get the hacer conjugation straight once and for all, in every tense you'll actually use.
In this guide I'll lay out hacer across all the major tenses, with full tables you can come back to whenever you're stuck. But I'll go further than a wall of charts. Hacer is one of the busiest verbs in Spanish: it means “to do” and “to make”, it powers most everyday weather phrases, it handles “ago” and “for”, and it hides inside dozens of everyday expressions. So you'll get the tables and the real-world uses that make them worth learning.
A quick reassurance before we get into it. Hacer is irregular, and irregular verbs have a reputation for being a slog. The good news: its irregularities are clustered and predictable. Learn a handful of quirky forms (hago, hice, har-, hecho) and the rest falls into familiar patterns. Master this one verb and you've opened up a huge slice of everyday Spanish conversation.
I learned hacer the way I learn everything: by needing it. On my first Spanish mission I couldn't get through a single morning without it. ¿Qué tiempo hace? (what's the weather like?), Hace dos años que estudio (I've been studying for two years), ¿Me haces un favor? (do me a favour). You reach for hacer constantly, which is exactly why it pays to know it cold.
What Makes Hacer Irregular
Before the tables, here's the map of where hacer misbehaves. Spot these four patterns and every table below makes sense:
- 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 hic- that drops its stress, giving hice, hiciste, hizo… Watch the third person: it's spelled hizo, not “hico”, because a c before o would harden the sound. The c changes to z to keep it soft.
- 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.
Everything else behaves. Now the tables.
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) is for completed past actions. This is the table to drill, because it's the most irregular, and that sneaky hizo spelling trips up nearly everyone.
| 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
Good news here. The imperfect (imperfecto), used for ongoing or habitual past actions, is completely regular for hacer.
| 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) builds off the preterite stem hic-. Spanish gives you two interchangeable sets of endings (-ra and -se); both are correct, and the -ra form is more common in speech.
| 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
This is where hacer goes from “another verb to memorise” to “a verb you genuinely can't speak Spanish without”. Here are the uses that matter.
To Do and To Make
Hacer covers both English verbs, which is actually a relief: where English makes you choose between “do” and “make”, Spanish just uses hacer.
- 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
This is a big one. In Spanish, weather is something the world does, so most weather phrases use hace (the él/ella form):
| 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.)
One thing learners trip over: you say hace frío (literally “it makes cold”), not “está frío” or “es frío” for the weather. If you've been wrestling with when to use ser and estar, our full guide to ser vs estar clears up exactly why weather sidesteps both and hands the job to hacer.
Time Expressions: “Ago” and “For”
Hacer is how Spanish says “ago” and “for (a length of time)”. This single pattern opens up loads of natural sentences.
- 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 / since”: Estudio español desde hace seis meses. (I've been studying Spanish for six months.)
Once these click, you can talk about how long you've been doing almost anything. For the wider picture, our how to tell the time in Spanish guide pairs nicely with these.
Hacerse: To Become
Add a reflexive pronoun and hacer becomes hacerse, “to become” (through effort or gradual change):
- 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 is full of fixed expressions built on hacer. A handful you'll hear constantly:
| 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 doesn't use preguntar here, it “makes” a question. If you like collecting high-frequency building blocks like these, our roundup of the most common Spanish words is a good next stop.
Common Mistakes with Hacer
A few slip-ups come up again and again. Get ahead of them now:
- Misspelling the third-person preterite. The c changes to z to keep the soft sound before o: it's always hizo, never “hico”.
- 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”.
- Using the wrong verb for the weather. Reaching for ser or estar is the classic slip: it's hace frío, not “es frío” or “está frío”, when you mean cold weather.
- 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.
- Translating “ask a question” word for word. The set phrase is hacer una pregunta, not preguntar on its own. You “make” a question in Spanish.
- 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 actually learn this verb rather than just stare at the tables:
- Nail the present and preterite first. They're the two you'll use most, and the preterite (especially hizo) is the trickiest, so front-load it.
- Learn the weather and time phrases as ready-made chunks. Hace frío, hace dos años, desde hace. These come out of your mouth whole, no conjugating required.
- Pick up the set phrases one at a time. Each hacer expression you learn is a sentence you can say today.
- Say them to a real person as soon as possible. Ask someone ¿Qué tiempo hace?, tell them how long you've studied, ask them to do you a favour. Real use beats any drill.
That last point is the heart of how I approach every language: you learn a verb like hacer by using it with real people, not by waiting until the tables are perfect. If you'd like a structured way to go from your first words to real conversations, with me coaching you through it, that's exactly what we build inside the Fluent in 3 Months Bootcamp, a cohort and a method designed to get you speaking Spanish with real people, fast.
For now, you've got every hacer conjugation you need, plus the uses that make them count. Go and put them to work.
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