desde is used to indicate
a point of time or location.
In the meaning of time
it can be translated with since.
desde
in a timely sense = since
Desde el año 1970 trabaja en Francia.
= He has worked in France since 1970.
Desde que se enteró que le habían
engañado no habló más
con ellos.
= Since he had noticed that they had deceived
him he didn't talk to them anymore
In the local sense, desde
means from.
desde
in a local sense = from
Desde mi ventana podía verla.
= I could see her from my window.
Viendo la cosa desde afuera parece una cosa de niños.
= Looking from the outside it seems something
childish.
Desde Madrid cada cinco minutos salen trenes con
destino a Alcalá.
= From Madrid trains leave to Alcalá
every five minutes.
Desde la torre se ve la ciudad desde arriba.
= From the tower you can see the town below.
I. desde can be used figuratively =
from
Aqui
puedes aprender JavaScript desde cero.
= Here you can learn JavaScript from cero.
Desde la altura de sus principios morales todo el
mundo le pareció vil y tonto.
= From the height of his principles the world
seemed mean and stupid.
II. use of desde
Desde is used when the
starting point of an action is exactly known and the
event is still going on until the present time or some
certain point of time (that is known as well). If the
end of the event is not mentioned desde
just means since. If
the total period is mentioned it is from
... to.
Vivo
en Madrid desde el año pasado.
= I live Madrid since last year.
Desde 1980 no fumo
más.
= Since 1980
I do not smoke anymore.
Estuve en Paris desde
agosto hasta noviembre.
= I was in Paris from August until (to) November.
III. use of hace
hace is a preposition
that doesn't have a counterpart in English. The English
construction is: It has been
a time that ... It means that the start of an
action is known and the action doesn't go on anymore
hace
= it has been ... that
Hace
una semana me escribió una carta.
= It's been
a week that he wrote this letter to me.
(action is finished, doesn't go on anymore)
Hace un año
me mudé a Berlin. = It's been
a year that I moved to Berlin.(the move
is done, I live in London, end of story)
desde in
a span of time (desde hace = for)
Vivo
en Berlin desde hace diez años. = I have been living in Berlin for
ten years.
Desde hace tres semanas
le estoy diciendo que tiene que ir al médico.
= I have been telling him for three weeks
that he has to go to the doctor.
Desde hace una semana
me escribe una carta cada día.
= He has been writing me a letter every
day for the last week. (It is still going
on)
hace is to be conjugated
Hace
ya tres años que se murió
su esposa.
= It has been already three years that his
wife died.
hace is a verb
that changes with tenses
Hacía ya
tres años que se había muerto
su esposa cuando se casó de nuevo.
= It had been already three years that his
wife had died when he remarried.
IV. desde hace and hace... que
desde hace is used when
a time span is expressed and the action is still ongoing.
Such constructions can be also described with desde
hace or hace .... que.
Vivo
en Londres desde hace diez años.
alternatively:
Hace diez años que vivo en Londres. = I have been living
in London for 10 years. alternatively: = It's been 10
years that I live in London.
Desde hace tres semanas le estoy diciendo
que tiene que ir al médico. alternatively:
Hace tres semanas que le estoy diciendo
que tiene que irse al medico. = I have been telling
him that he has to go to the doctor for
three weeks. alternatively: = It's been three weeks that I have been
telling him that he has to go to the doctor.
