Spanish Verb Hacer Conjugation

One of the most common verbs in Spanish, hacer, which means "to make" or "to do," is highly irregular. This article demonstrates hacer conjugations in the present, past and future indicative, the present and past subjunctive, the imperative, and other verb forms.

When conjugating hacer, the a in the stem sometimes changes to e or i, and the c sometimes changes to z or g. The only other verbs that follow the same conjugation pattern are those derived from it, such as contrahacer (to copy or to counterfeit), deshacer (to unmake or undo), and rehacer (to remake or redo).

Using the Verb Hacer

The verb hacer generally means "to do" or "to make," but it can also be part of other useful expressions. For example, it can mean "ago," as in duration of time. Hence, the phrase hace 10 años means "ten years ago," and hace cinco minutos means "five minutes ago."

The verb hacer is also used to talk about the weather. For example, hace frío means "it is cold." You can make the same construction with hace calor, hace viento, hace fresco, etc. (it is hot, windy, cool, etc.).

Hacer Present Indicative

In the present indicative tense, the only irregular conjugation of hacer is the first person singular (yo).

Hacer Preterite Indicative

Notice that in the preterite tense, the a in the stem of hacer changes to an i. These are all irregular forms.

Hacer Imperfect Indicative

The imperfect tense is conjugated regularly, using the stem hac plus the imperfect ending for -er verbs (ía, ías, ía, íamos, íais, ían). Remember that the imperfect can be translated as "was making" or "used to make."

Hacer Future Indicative

The verb hacer is irregular in the future tense. Its conjugation starts with the form har-.

Hacer Periphrastic Future Indicative 

The periphrastic future is formed using the present indicative conjugation of the verb ir (to go), the preposition a, and the infinitive hacer.

Hacer Present Progressive/Gerund Form

The equivalent of the English -ing form, gerund or present participle, is the -ando or -iendo form in Spanish. The gerund for hacer is formed regularly, using the ending -iendo.

Hacer Past Participle

The past participle for hacer is irregular: hecho. One of the main uses of the past participle is to form compound tenses such as the present perfect.

Hacer Conditional Indicative

The conditional tense is used to talk about possibilities, and is translated to English as "would + verb." For example, ¿Qué harías por tus hijos? (What would you do for your children?). In the conditional indicative, the verb hacer is irregular and uses the stem har-.

Hacer Present Subjunctive

The present subjunctive is used to talk about doubts, desires, emotions, recommendations, or other subjective situations.

Hacer Imperfect Subjunctive

The imperfect subjunctive is used in similar situations as the present subjunctive, but in the past. There are two options for conjugating the imperfect subjunctive.

Option 1

Option 2

Hacer Imperative

The imperative mood is used to give direct commands. There are both positive and negative commands. Notice that the second person singular command haz is irregular.

Positive Commands

Negative Commands