Hacer: 10 Forms for Everyday Conversation

In this video, we cover the top 10 forms of Hacer, practice using each one, and explore how Hacer interacts with direct objects, past tenses, and helping verbs!

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Read: Top 10 Conjugations of Hacer

Let’s start by listing out the top 10 forms of Hacer.

We chose these words based on a frequency analysis of Spanish spoken by native Spanish speakers. According to this analysis, there are about 400 words that make up over 66% of all words spoken in Spanish. And that list of 400 words includes only these 10 forms of Hacer:

• hacer
• hace
• hecho
• haciendo
• haces
• hizo
• hice
• haré
• hiciste
• hago

Let’s dive in and practice using all of these!

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Hacer Present-Tense Conjugations

We’ll start with the present tense. These are three forms that you might already be familiar with.

• I do → hago
• he/she does → hace
• you do → haces

Of course, these aren’t the only present-tense forms of Hacer, but these are the three that make it into the top 10 list.

We use these to talk about what someone does. Here are some examples:

• I do yoga. → Hago yoga.
• He does those things. → Hace esas cosas.
• You do a lot! → ¡Haces mucho!

But here’s what’s interesting: In Spanish, Hacer doesn’t just mean “to do” — it also means “to make”. Here are some examples:

• I make coffee. → Hago café.
• She makes that every day.  → Hace eso todos los días.
• You make lots of friends.  → Haces muchos amigos.

Notice that all of these sentences start with a conjugation of Hacer at the beginning, then what the person does or makes.

Let’s get a little bit of practice with this. See if you can guess which version of Hacer is the correct one.

1. You make music.   → ______ música.
2. I make tea every day. → ______ té todos los días.
3. She does those things. → _____ esas cosas.
   

ANSWERS

1. Haces
2. Hago
3. Hace

As you can see, we’re using just three forms of Hacer to express a wide variety of activities. This verb is extremely useful in any situation; a lot of the time, when you can’t think of the specific verb for something, you can usually just use Hacer to express “doing” pretty much anything!

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Using Direct Object Pronouns with Hacer (lo, la, los, and las)

Now for an important note about sentence structure.

In English, we often say things like “I do it” or “you make them”. We use “it” or “them” when the thing you do or make is already known, so you don’t have to repeat the entire noun. (This also comes in handy when you can’t think of the noun; you can just use “it” or “them” instead.)

These words, “it” and “them”, are called direct object pronouns. And in Spanish, to say “it”, you’ll use lo or la, depending on the gender of the noun that it refers to. For “them”, you’ll use los or las.

Here’s an example. Let’s start with this sentence:

• I make tea every day. → Hago té todos los días.

Now let’s say we want to simplify this sentence and just say:

• I make it every day. → Lo hago todos los días.

So we’ve replaced té with lo. But notice how in English, “it” goes after the verb “make”. But in Spanish, lo goes BEFORE hago.

Let’s look at another example with more context. 

Imagine you’re having a conversation with someone about your hobbies and your fitness habits, and they ask you:

• What do you do? → ¿Qué haces?

Here’s what you want to say in English:

• I do yoga. I do it in the morning.

Since the word yoga is masculine, here’s what this would sound like:

• Hago yoga. Lo hago en la mañana.

Next, let’s try with a plural, feminine noun like “the things”, which is las cosas. In this case, we won’t use lo; instead, we need to use las.

So to start out, here’s a sentence where we actually say “the things”:

• She does the things in the morning.
• Hace las cosas en la mañana. 

But what if we want to say:

• She does them in the morning.

This would be:

• Las hace en la mañana.

If you want to explore object pronouns in depth, you should check out the LearnCraft Spanish Podcast, which thousands of students have used to finally master direct objects in Spanish.

For now, let’s just keep practicing the verb Hacer, but this time you’ll notice that some of these sentences are restructured to use direct object pronouns.

Try to predict the right version of Hacer.

1. She makes good pizza. → _______ buena pizza.
2. I do it every week. → Lo ____ cada semana.
3. You do this everyday. → ____ esto todos los días.
4. Do you do Pilates? → ¿____ Pilates?
5. Yes, I do it every day. → Si, lo ____ todos los dias.

ANSWERS

1. Hace
2. hago
3. Haces
4. Haces
5. hago

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Hacer Past-Tense Conjugations

Let’s move on to the past tense.

• I did → hice
• he/she did → hizo
• you did → hiciste

These words can also mean “I made”, “he/she made”, or “you made”.

Let’s get some quick and easy practice with these. Try to predict the Spanish version of these sentences. 

1. You did the work. → ____ el trabajo.
2. He made the bed. → ____ la cama.
3. What did you do? → ¿Qué ____?
4. I made food. → ____ comida.
5. She made a list. → ____ una lista.
   

ANSWERS

1. Hiciste
2. Hizo
3. hiciste 
4. Hice
5. Hizo

Next, let’s practice the past tense along with direct object pronouns like lo and la.

Check out this example conversation in English:

• “What did you do today?”
• “I made sushi.”
• “When did you make it?”
• “I made it this morning.”

The first two lines are pretty straight forward:

• “¿Qué hiciste hoy?”
• “Hice sushi.”

And then the last two sentences require us to put “it” before the form of Hacer:

• “¿Cuándo lo hiciste?”
• “Lo hice esta mañana.”

Let’s practice with a few more examples. Once again, I’m not going to make you try to figure out which ones to use, but you’ll get to see how the sentence structure changes.

1. What did she do today? → ¿Qué ____ hoy?
2. She made a plan. → ____ un plan.
3. You did it yesterday. → Lo ____ ayer.
4. I made tea. → ____ té.
5. She made them that day. → Las ____ ese día. 

ANSWERS

1. Hizo
2. Hizo 
3. hiciste 
4. Hice
5. hizo

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Future Tense of Hacer

Let’s move on to the most common future-tense form:

• I will do → haré

This is the only future form that makes it to the top 10 list, so we’ll only practice this one for now. 

Let’s look at some examples. 

• I will do that. → Haré eso.
• I will make new friends. → Haré nuevos amigos. 

Now let’s add direct objects! Let’s look at this interaction:

• Did you do the work?
• I’ll do it tomorrow.

This would be:

• ¿Hiciste el trabajo?
• Lo haré mañana.

Here are a few more examples with haré:

• I will make the bed. → Haré la cama.
• I will not do that. → No haré eso.
• I’ll do it tonight. → Lo haré esta noche. 

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The Infinitive, “Hacer”

Let’s look at the infinitive form, hacer, which just means “to do” (or “to make”). It’s the basic form of the verb and doesn’t change based on who it’s referring to. 

It’s interesting to point out that this is actually the most-used form of the verb Hacer. On the list of most frequent words in Spanish, the infinitive hacer is actually number 70 among all words!

Let’s look at why this form is so handy. Check out these examples:

• I want to do more. → Quiero hacer más.
• She wants to make this. → Quiere hacer esto.
• What do you want to do? → ¿Qué quieres hacer?

Notice that these all use a form of the verb Querer, which means to want, but then after that the word hacer doesn’t change; it’s the same in each sentence. This word is super useful for talking about what anybody wants to do in Spanish.

Let’s get a bit more practice using both haré and hacer. Try to predict the right form.

1. I want to make a plan.→ Quiero ______ un plan.
2. I will do them tonight. Los ______ esta noche.
3. He wants to do this.→ Él quiere ______ esto.
4. Do you want to make coffee?→ ¿Quieres ______ café?

ANSWERS

1. hacer 
2. haré
3. hacer
4. hacer
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The Gerund, “Haciendo”

The next form is haciendo, which is known as the gerund or the present participle. It basically means “doing” or “making”, as an ongoing activity.

Here’s an example in English:

• I am doing something right now.

Notice how the word “doing” has the helping verb “am” to complete the sentence; we don’t say “I doing”, but “I am doing”. In Spanish, we are going to need a helping verb too, specifically the verb Estar. Here’s the Spanish:

• Estoy haciendo algo ahora.

So here, to use haciendo, we need “I am”, which is estoy, then what it is that we’re doing.

If we want to change who is doing something, we can switch out estoy for another form of Estar. For example:

• You are doing something right now.
• Estás haciendo algo ahora.

To learn more about Estar, you can check out this other guide. For now, just keep in mind that you’ll use haciendo after a form of Estar, specifically when you’re talking about something someone is currently doing or making.

Here’s another example, with a little context:

• “What are you doing?” “I’m making the food.”
• “¿Qué estás haciendo?” “Estoy haciendo la comida.”

Notice that both “doing” and “making” translated to haciendo here. This word is super handy for describing what anybody is currently doing or making.

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Past Participle Form, “Hecho”

The last form we’ll cover is the past participle, hecho. This word is basically equivalent to the English word “done”. For example:

• I have done the work. 

Notice how the word “done” needs the helping verb “have” to complete the sentence: “I have done the work”. In Spanish, something similar happens: To use the word hecho, we need help from the verb Haber. This is the verb that means “have”, specifically in the sense of “having done” something, as in “I have made” and “I have done”.

For this guide, we’re just going to us these three forms of Haber:

• I have done → He hecho
• You have done → Has hecho
• He/she has done → Ha hecho

So let’s go back to this example:

• I have done the work. 

The Spanish version is:

• He hecho el trabajo. 

Let’s look at another example: 

• She has done the work. 

And here’s the Spanish:

• Ha hecho el trabajo.

Notice how hecho doesn’t change. The only thing that changes is the helping verb based on which person has done something.

Let’s practice with some examples of both haciendo and hecho. Try to predict the right one based on the context!

1. What is she doing? ¿Que está ________? 
2. She has done the work. Ella ha _______ el trabajo.
3. You have done it many times. Lo has ____ muchas veces.
4. I’m doing it now. Lo estoy ________ ahora.

ANSWERS:

1. haciendo
2. hecho
3. hecho
4. haciendo

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Drill Your Skills With Free Flashcards

Ready to get even better at this? We have a set of over 40 flashcards you can download, for free, with even more examples of Hacer. You can use these to practice talking about doing all kinds of activities in the past, the present, and the future. Enjoy!

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