hacer Preterite Conjugation
hacer — to do
Hacer is highly irregular in the preterite, featuring a stem change to 'hic-' (and 'hiz-' for the él/ella form).
hacer Preterite Forms
When to Use the Preterite
Use the preterite to describe a completed action or something you finished doing at a specific point in time, like making a bed or doing homework.
Notes on hacer in the Preterite
The stem changes from 'hac-' to 'hic-'. Crucially, the él/ella/usted form changes the 'c' to a 'z' (hizo) to maintain the 's' sound before the 'o'.
Example Sentences
Ayer hice mucho ejercicio.
Yesterday I did a lot of exercise.
yo
¿Hiciste la tarea de español?
Did you do the Spanish homework?
tú
Ella hizo una tarta de chocolate.
She made a chocolate cake.
él/ella/usted
Hicimos planes para el fin de semana.
We made plans for the weekend.
nosotros
Common Mistakes
Mistake: Writing 'hico' for the third person.
Correct: hizo
Why: In Spanish, 'co' sounds like 'ko'. To keep the soft 's' sound of the verb, we must use a 'z' before the 'o'.
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Related Tenses
Present
yo: hago
Hacer is a 'yo-go' verb, meaning only the first-person singular is irregular (hago).
Imperfect
yo: hacía
Hacer is completely regular in the imperfect tense: hacía, hacías, hacía...
Future
yo: haré
Hacer uses the irregular stem 'har-' for all future tense endings.
Conditional
yo: haría
The conditional uses the same irregular stem as the future: 'har-'.
Present Subjunctive
yo: haga
The present subjunctive is built from the 'yo' form (hago), resulting in the stem 'hag-'.
Imperfect Subjunctive
yo: hiciera
Based on the preterite stem, the imperfect subjunctive uses 'hicier-'.
Affirmative Imperative
yo: haz
The informal command is the very short 'haz', while others use the 'hag-' stem.
Negative Imperative
yo: no hagas
Negative commands for hacer always use the 'hag-' stem from the subjunctive.