Verbal Periphrases & Talking About Time (Perífrasis verbales y expresiones de tiempo)

By B2, you don't just want to say what happens — you want to color how it happens: something you've just done, something you're doing again, an action you started, one you stopped, one you keep doing. Spanish packs all of that nuance into neat little verb chains called perífrasis verbales — a conjugated helper verb glued to an infinitive or a gerund. In this lesson you'll master the most useful ones, and then tackle the structures learners get wrong most often: how to talk about duration (how long you've been doing something) and how to say "ago."

What Is a Verbal Periphrasis?

A periphrasis is a fixed combination of two verbs working as a team: a conjugated verb that carries the tense and person, plus a non-finite verb (an infinitive or a gerund) that carries the core meaning. Often a little preposition (de, a) links them. The magic is that the pair means more than the sum of its parts — it adds a layer of aspect or nuance that a single verb can't.

You already know two of them well, so we'll just wave hello: ir a + infinitive for the near future (Voy a llamarte mañana. — I'm going to call you tomorrow.) and estar + gerund for actions in progress (Estoy trabajando ahora. — I'm working right now.). Keep those as your anchors; everything below follows the same team-of-two logic.

The Essential Periphrases (Verb + [Preposition] + Infinitive / Gerund)

Here are the seven that will most transform your speech. Notice which take an infinitive and which take a gerund — that split matters. Only the conjugated (first) verb changes for tense and person; the second verb stays fixed.

A few things worth pinning down. Acabar de in the present or imperfect means "to have just" — don't confuse it with plain acabar ("to finish"): Acabo de comer. is I've just eaten, not I finish eating. Volver a is the cleanest way to say "again" without tacking on otra vez: No vuelvas a hacerlo. — Don't do it again.

Empezar a and ponerse a both mean "to start," but ponerse a adds a jolt of suddenness or a shift of energy — you throw yourself into it: Se puso a gritar sin motivo. — He suddenly started shouting for no reason. Meanwhile seguir + gerund and continuar + gerund are near-perfect synonyms for "to keep doing"; remember they demand the gerund, never the infinitive: Sigo trabajando aquí. (never sigo trabajar).

⚠️ Common mistake: mixing up which verbs want an infinitive and which want a gerund. Acabar de, volver a, empezar a, ponerse a, dejar de, and estar a punto de all take the infinitive. Only seguir/continuar and llevar (plus the familiar estar) take the gerund. When in doubt, ask: is there an a or de right before the second verb? If so, that second verb is almost always an infinitive.

Talking About Duration: "How Long Have You Been…?"

This is the single highest-value structure in the lesson, because English and Spanish think about it so differently. In English we reach for a perfect tense — "I have lived here for two years." Spanish overwhelmingly uses the present tense for an action still going on, wrapped in one of a few time frames. Here are the ways to express the same idea — I've lived here for two years — side by side.

The first two rows are literally the same sentence in two word orders, so learn them as a pair. Hace dos años que vivo aquí front-loads the time; Vivo aquí desde hace dos años tucks it at the end with desde hace. Both are completely natural — pick whichever rhythm you like. Note that the verb stays in the present because you still live there.

Use plain desde when you name a starting point rather than a length of time — a year, a month, a day: Estudio español desde enero. — I've studied Spanish since January. Compare desde ("since" + a point) with desde hace ("for" + a duration): Vivo aquí desde 2020. vs. Vivo aquí desde hace cinco años.

Finally, llevar + time + gerund is a wonderfully compact fourth option, extremely common in speech: Llevo dos años viviendo aquí. — I've been living here for two years. You can even drop the gerund when context is clear: ¿Cuánto tiempo llevas aquí? — How long have you been here?

Saying "Ago": hace + Time + PAST Verb

Here's the twist that trips everyone up. The word hace pulls double duty. You just saw it mean "for" with a present-tense verb. But pair the very same hace + time with a past-tense verb and it flips to mean "ago." The tense of the main verb is the whole difference.

So Terminé el trabajo hace dos días. = I finished the work two days ago. You can also front it: Hace dos días terminé el trabajo. — same meaning, and if you front it you may optionally add que: Hace dos días que terminé el trabajo. The reliable signal is the verb: a preterite ("I arrived," "I finished") means you're saying "ago"; a present means you're measuring an ongoing stretch.

⚠️ Common mistake: don't translate "ago" as atrás in standard Spanish, and never leave out hace. It's hace una hora, not una hora atrás and not just una hora. Also resist the pull of the English perfect: to say how long something has been going on, use the present in Spanish (Hace dos años que estudio), not the perfect.

Putting It Together

Watch how these tools combine to sound genuinely fluent. Acabo de terminar la reunión y sigo esperando el informe; llevo tres horas trabajando. — I've just finished the meeting and I'm still waiting for the report; I've been working for three hours. Or a past-flavored one: Dejé de fumar hace un año y no he vuelto a hacerlo. — I stopped smoking a year ago and I haven't done it again. Every clause there is a periphrasis or a time structure from this lesson — that's what B2 flow is built from.

Master these little verb chains and time frames and you unlock a whole register of natural, precise Spanish — the difference between reporting facts and truly narrating your life. Try describing your own day using at least three periphrasis and one hace structure; the more you reach for them, the faster they'll feel like your own. ¡Sigue practicando!