Hacer: Present Tense & Present Progressive

In this lesson, we will learn about the Spanish verb ‘hacer’ (‘to do, to make’) and its conjugation in the present, in both simple and progressive tenses. Also, we will analyze its multiple meanings and the contexts in which it can be used.
Introducing the Verb Hacer
What do you do during the weekend? Do you do any sports or activities? When do you do your homework? You’ll need to learn the verb hacer (‘to do/make’) in order to answer these and many other questions in Spanish. Hacer is one of the Spanish verbs with more meanings, so it’s used in practically every conversation.

Using Hacer in the Present
Emma is doing her homework when her phone beeps. Marta, her best friend, is texting her.

Marta: ¡Hola, Emma! ¿Qué haces? (‘Hi, Emma! What are you doing?’)

Emma: Estoy haciendo los deberes. (‘I’m doing homework’.) ¿Y tú? (‘And you?’)

Marta: Yo estoy haciendo la comida. (‘I’m making lunch’.) Mi hermana hace una fiesta esta noche por el cumpleaños de su novio. (‘My sister holds a party for her boyfriend’s birthday tonight’.) ¿Te vienes? (‘Are you coming?’)

Emma: ¡Claro! ¿Le hacemos un regalo? (‘Sure! Shall we give him a present?’)

They keep texting each other for a while until they agree to meet at 6pm.

Marta: Hacemos eso. (‘We’ll do that’) Te veo por fuera del centro comercial. (‘See you outside the mall’.)

Meanings of Hacer
Have you noticed how many meanings the verb hacer has? Its basic one is ‘to do/make’ but this verb can acquire a great variety of meanings depending on the context. Let’s take a look at the most frequent ones:

Meaning Examples
To do, to make (actions, chores) Hacer la cama/los deberes. . . (‘to make the bed/to do homework’)
To make (elaborate, prepare or create) Hacer la comida/un pastel/un regalo. . . (‘to make a meal/a cake/a present’)
To arrange or organize Hacer la maleta (‘to pack’)
To acquire or win Hacer dinero/una fortuna (‘to make money/a fortune’)
To be (weather) Hacer calor/frío/sol. . . (‘to be hot/cold/sunny. . .’)
As you can see, this verb is multi-purpose, so we we’ll unavoidably use it all the time in plenty of expressions and contexts.

Present Simple of Hacer
The verb hacer is irregular only in the first person singular (hago). For the rest of the pronouns, we will use its stem hac-. Let’s look at a table where we break this down further.

Subject Pronouns Hacer Conjugation: Present Simple Translation
yo hago I do/make
tú haces you do/make
él/ella/usted hace he/she/you (formal) does/makes
nosotros/nosotras hacemos we do/make
vosotros/vosotras hacéis you all do/make
ellos/ellas/ustedes hacen they/you all (formal) do/make
Notice that when using the verb hacer in relation to the weather or climate, we can only conjugate it in the third person singular. So, for example, we will say Hace mucho calor hoy (‘It’s very hot today’) or Hace sol (‘It’s sunny’).

Present Progressive of Hacer
We’ll use the present progressive (estar (‘to be’) + gerund) in order to refer to an action that is taking place at the moment of speaking or when talking about actions or events that have been happening lately.

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