Hace+ time+ que

[Oldman]

Can someone translate/explain the meanings of the following 4 sentences please:
1. Cuanto tiempo hace que estudiaste medicina?
2. Cuanto tiempo hace que no estudiaste medicina ?
3.Cuanto tiempo hace que estudias medicina ?
4. Cuanto tiempo hace que no estudias medicina ?

I think 3) means how long have you been studying medicine and 4) means how long has it been since you have studied medicine.

Are 1) and 4) equivalent ? I don't know what 2) means,

Thank you

[Rusty]

Welcome to the forums!
I have rewritten the questions, adding appropriate punctuation and accent marks. These can be inserted by using the Accents drop-down box.

1. ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que estudiaste medicina?
2. ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que no estudiaste medicina?
3. ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que estudias medicina?
4. ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que no estudias medicina?

The last two questions are using the present tense of estudiar, conjugated in second person singular, so the inquiry is about how long something has been happening, or has not been happening.

Your translation of number 3 is correct.
Number 4 needs to be negated - "How long have you not been studying medicine?" or "How long haven't you been studying medicine?"

The first two questions are using the same verb and conjugation, but in the preterit tense, so the inquiry is about how long ago something happened, but is no longer happening, or didn't happen.

To answer your question, numbers 1 and 4 cannot mean the same thing since different tenses are involved.

Can you come up with the right translations of numbers 1 and 2?

[Oldman]

Thanks a ton for your reply/help...


Here is where I am at:

1) How long ago did you study medicine?
2) How long ago did you not study medicine? - implying that he is currently studying medicine. which is equivalent to "How long ago did you start studying medicine?" equivalent to "How long have you been studying medicine?
3) How long have you been studying medicine?
4) How long have you not been studying medicine (your wording) or (my wording) How long has it been since you studied medicine?

I am concluding that question 1 and 4 are asking the same question (and that questions 2 and 3 are asking the same question) despite both using different wording and tenses.

(Perhaps the negation of the past tense is the present tense, and the negation of the present tense is the past tense? Dare I go that far?!!!!)

Pease help me get this squared away, if my understanding is incorrect on the meanings/translations. I am certainly stuck

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by Oldman

1) How long ago did you study medicine?
"Did study" means studying has stopped.
2) How long ago did you not study medicine?
I would change this to "How long have you not studied medicine?" for simplicity's sake. This means studying medicine never happened in the past. This cannot be construed to mean "How long ago did you start ..." or "How long have you been studying ...."
3) How long have you been studying medicine?
4) How long have you not been studying medicine (your wording) or (my wording) How long has it been since you studied medicine?

Each question is valid and unique (none means the same thing as the other in Spanish (and shouldn't in English).

Originally Posted by Oldman

(Perhaps the negation of the past tense is the present tense, and the negation of the present tense is the past tense? Dare I go that far?!!!!)

No, the preterit tense is used when an action had a start and an end in the past or when it didn't have a start and an end in the past.

Perhaps it's the English equivalent of "how long" that is confusing you.
You'll find other constructions with hace (literally, "it makes") that also pass through hoops to get the right English translation, such as:
Hace mucho que te veo. = I've seen you for a long time.
Hace mucho que no te veo. = I haven't seen you in a long time.
Hace mucho que te vi. = I saw you a long time ago.
Hace mucho que no te vi. = It's been a long time since I saw you (last).

Present tense ver with a time factor (hace mucho) means "has seen" plus the time factor. (It is English that forces us to use the present perfect tense where Spanish uses the present tense. "It makes a lot that I see you.")
Preterit tense ver with a time factor (hace mucho) means "saw" plus the time factor. (Using the past tense verb "saw" makes it much simpler to understand. The time factor is still present. "It makes a lot that I saw you.)
(However, there are those who insist that the present perfect tense (have seen) should be used in my last example, making the translation "It's been a long time since I've seen you." You can choose either translation.)

[Oldman]

Thanks again....

For question 1 yes, the studying had a start and a finish because we are dealing with the preterite. I understand that.
so looking at question 1 and question 4 I still see these questions asking the same thing. You studied, you stopped... How far in the past did this occur ?

Question 2 seems to me to be simply a nonsensical question and question 2 is the one I struggle the most with. If studying never started in the first place, why would someone ask " How long have you not studied medicine? The question would only seem to make sense (to me) if there was a start and a finish.

Anyway, I appreciate your attempt at trying to help me through it. Miyabe if we put question 2, aside, and you don't mind another go at it , could you try to explain the difference just between question 1 and 4 ? Your green check marks seem to affirm my thinking.

[Rusty]

The questions do not mean the same thing. The lesson to learn is how they are different, not how they are the same.

You believe that number 4 is asking the same thing as number 1, but they are NOT the same question in Spanish, so how could they be the same question in English?
Number 1 asks, in the time frame of the present, how much time someone studies (ongoing) ("time factor + study). Four asks, in the time frame of the past, how much time someone didn't study ("time factor + not studied). Focus on the tense. They are different. No English translation should make these equivalent. If we think they're the same, perhaps it's because the English used doesn't make the two ideas markedly different.

Question number 2 makes perfect sense in Spanish, but perhaps you'll never hear it asked. It means studying didn't happen, and someone is asking how long that happened. Asking how many years someone didn't study medicine would be a good question for an interview, where the candidate is now considering medicine but didn't bother to study it earlier.
If I've used English that makes you think these questions are similar or nonsensical, it is because our language is throwing in a timing factor that employs a perfect tense. By definition, the 'perfect' in 'present perfect tense' and 'past perfect tense' means "completed." This is why the British understand "I've seen" differently than we here in America.

One more thing: we often say an action 'starts and ends' when the preterit is in use, but we can equally say that it never happened in the past. That's why the verb is negated. The action did not occur.

[Oldman]

I think it's really the 'negation' that is throwing me off and I really want to try and understand the difference between. "
1. ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que estudiaste medicina?
4. ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que no estudias medicina?

Let me try and go through this and you point out where I am falling apart:

Question 1:

Let's say that I am interviewing you, my doctor, and here I am asking you how long ago you studied medicine. You aren't in school and maybe I want to know how long it's been since you graduated and began your practice. DO you agree or disagree that I am interpreting Question 1 correctly?

Question 4:
I know you are a doctor and I know you studied medicine and here I am asking you how long have you NOT been studying? Isn't question 4 simply a round-about way of getting at the same answer: "How long has it been since you studied medicine."

Where is my logic/interpretation falling apart ?

Sorry if I sound like I am beating a dead horse (and I am not arguing with you).

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by Oldman

I think it's really the 'negation' that is throwing me off and I really want to try and understand the difference between. "
1. ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que estudiaste medicina?
4. ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que no estudias medicina?

Let me try and go through this and you point out where I am falling apart:

Question 1:

Let's say that I am interviewing you, my doctor, and here I am asking you how long ago you studied medicine. (Yes. That is the reason you would ask Question 1.) You aren't in school and maybe I want to know how long it's been since you graduated and began your practice. (Same as before, you want to know how long ago it was that I, your doctor, studied medicine, but that is all the question asks - "How long ago did you study medicine?" If you want to know when I graduated and when I began my practice, those are other questions (neither of which contains hace.) DO you agree or disagree that I am interpreting Question 1 correctly? (Only interpret the question, "How long ago did you study medicine?" Nothing more. )

Question 4:
I know you are a doctor and I know you studied medicine and here I am asking you how long have you NOT been studying? Isn't question 4 simply a round-about way of getting at the same answer: "How long has it been since you studied medicine." (Present tense and hace- ongoing process, simply negated: How long have you not been studying medicine? NOT studying is an ongoing process, just as much as studying is. I simplified answers earlier. But you can't ask question 4, which is ongoing, and translate it into English as "since you studied." That is what question 1 is asking. Past tense, action started/ended).

Where is my logic/interpretation falling apart ?

Sorry if I sound like I am beating a dead horse (and I am not arguing with you).

You're not beating a dead horse. I'm trying to make a point of what the Spanish questions are asking and NOT what the English questions we've been using are asking. I hope you understand.

You can argue that both questions 1 and 4 are asking the same thing, but in Spanish they are not. Tense, ongoing or not, negated or not, plus hace, are hard concepts to grasp at first.

Question 1 and question 4 are not asking the same question in Spanish, so the English translations should not be asking the same questions, either.
Granted, there's always more than one way to translate a Spanish idea into English, and you have done just that.
But, learning how to correctly form the question in Spanish is one thing; translating it into English, another.

[Oldman]

I'm starting to see where you are going....not quite there.... Let me try another.

1. ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que visitaste a tu familia ?
2. ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que no visitas a tu familia ?

3. ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que no visitaste a tu familia ?
4. ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que visitas a tu familia ?


Suppose the last time you visited your family was on 1/1/22 and you stayed for one month and then left and haven't seen them since and today is 2/1/23

Would you mind answering all 4 questions in Spanish and English please ?

[Rusty]

No, I don't mind.
The Spanish questions aren't asking the same thing, but how you word your translation may make you think they are.

Originally Posted by Oldman

1. ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que visitaste a tu familia? (How long ago did you visit your family?)
- Hace un año. (A year ago.)

2. ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que no visitas a tu familia? (How long have you not been visiting with your family? There are other ways to ask this in English.)
- Ha pasado un año. (A year has passed.)

3. ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que no visitaste a tu familia? (How long have you not visited your family? There are other ways to say this in English.)
- Hace un año. (It's been a year. There's more than one way to translate things.)

4. ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que visitas a tu familia? (How long have you been visiting your family?
- No los hemos visto desde hace un año. (We haven't seen them for a year.)

Remember, there's more than one way to translate these questions and answers into English.