Lesson 13: Hacer (to do), qué (what), puedo (I can) and Esperar (I wait/hope)
By the end of this page you'll be familiar with Hacer (to do), qué (what), puedo (I can) and Esperar (I wait/hope) but without memorizing parrot fashion.
We're going to cover a lot in a short amount of time here but the key is to think about it, discover it, be curious about it and let some of it surprise you rather than facing it as a cascade of things you have to learn.
We'll look at:
- 'Hacer' - "to do" or "to make"
- 'Qué' - "what"
- 'Puedo' - "I can"
- 'Esperar' - "to wait" or "to hope"
So let's jump in
Hacer - "to do" or "to make"
The first thing we want to do when we see a new verb is to make a mental note. Is it:
- An 'ar' verb - like 'hablar' (to speak)
- An 'ir' verb - like 'venir' (to come)
- An 'er' verb - like 'comer' (to eat)
All verbs will be in one of these three groups and obviously 'hacer is an 'er' verb and we already know how to handle these because their key sound is 'e' (as in elephant).
Now, remembering that 'h' in Spanish is silent ....
 Spanish |  English |
|---|---|
| Hace | he/she/it is making/doing |
| Hace | you (formal) are making/doing |
| Lo hace | you (formal) are doing it |
| Lo hacen | you (guys) are doing it |
| Lo hacen | They are doing it |
| Lo haces | You (informal) are doing it |
Qué - what
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ¿Qué haces? | What are you (informal) doing |
You will hear this a lot in Spanish countries because it is a way of saying "What are you up to?" when people meet.
A note on verb endings
So .....
- for 'ar' verbs if we take off the 'r' and add an 'n' we get the they form - 'hablan', "they speak"
- for 'er' verbs if we take off the 'r' and add an 'n' we get the they form - 'hacen', "they do / make"
We'll see this association with 'n' and the they (or you guys) form of verbs more and more as we go forward so don't worry, you aren't going to forget it.
Also .....
- for 'ar' verbs if we take off the 'r' and add an 's' we get the you (informal) form - 'hablas', "you speak"
- for 'er' verbs if we take off the 'r' and add an 'n' we get the you (informal) form - 'haces', "you do / make"
Again this 's' associated with the informal you is going to pop up everywhere! So don't get too bogged down in the idea of trying to memorise these forms. When you see it again you'll say "Ah therie is that 's' again with the you (informal) form" and then it will sink in very quickly.
We'll refer to it from here as 'the informal s'.
Puedo - I can / I am able
Puedo is an 'er' verb so if we know that we can say:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Puede | he/she/it/you (formal) can |
| Puedes | you (informal) can |
| ¿Puedes venir? | Can you (informal) come? |
| ¿No puedes venir? | Can't you (informal) come? |
| ¿Por qué no puedes venir? | Why can't you (informal) come? |
Now its just worth pointing out again that the word structure doesn't change in Spanish when we ask a question. That means if we said 'No puedes venir' with the tone of a statement we would be saying "You can't come" as we'll see below.
OK let's try a long sentence: "I want to know why you can't come"
As always the best approach is to break it down into parts:
- I want to know - 'Quiero saber'
- why - 'por qué'
- you can't come - 'no puedes venir'
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Quiero saber por qué no puedes venir | I want to know why you can't come |
The key to these long sentences is to apply your mind to it one block at a time and concentrate on that block only. As soon as you've said it, forget it and concentrate on the next block - exactly as we do in these lists.
- I want to know - 'Quiero saber'
- why - 'por qué'
- you can't come - 'no puedes venir'
A quick recap
OK! We have 'ar', 'er' and 'ir' verbs. For all of them we take off the 'ar', 'er' or 'ir' and ....
- add 'o' to get the I form - vendor ->'vendo' ("I sell / I am selling"), comprar -> 'compro' (I buy / I am buying).
- for 'ar' verbs add 'as' to get the you (informal) form or add 'an' to get the they/you guys form
- for 'ir' or 'er' verbs add 'es' to get the you (informal) form or add 'en' to get the they/you guys form
So if 'llegar' is to arrive (and it is!) ...
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Llego | I arrive |
'Go' verbs
These rules we've looked at work most of the time but there are, of course, irregulars - especially in the I form
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Salgo | I leave / I'm going out |
| Tengo | I have |
| Vengo | I come |
Because these all end 'go' in the I form we call them 'go' verbs. Watch out for them as we go because they have a role to play further down the line!
Esperar - to wait / to hope'Esperar' can mean both "to wait" and "to hope" which is quite a good way to remember it because when we are waiting we are usually doing it because we hope something will happen!
We can also remember it from the English "desperate" which is how you feel when you wait too long!
But most importantly we just make the observation - "Ah, an 'ar' verb"
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Esperar | To wait / to hope |
| Espero | I wait / I hope |
| Espera | He/she/it waits / hopes |
| Espera | You (formal) wait / hope |
| Esperan | They/you guys wait / hope |
| Me esperan | They are waiting for me |
Remember the 'me' can only go at the beginning here because we have a changed verb, it is not the to form.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| No me esperan | They are not waiting for me |
And let's practice a long one - "I want to know why they're not waiting for me" - by breaking it down:
- I want to know - Quiero saber
- why - por qué
- they are not waiting for me - no me esperan
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Quiero saber por qué no me esperan | I want to know why they're not waiting for me |
'b' and 'v'
We said before that 'v' is pronounced as a soft 'b' in Spanish but its also interesting to see Spanish has a grey area here where it does sometimes flip to the 'b'.
- Vocabulary is 'vocabulario'
- Mouth is 'boca'
And mouth is very much related to vocabulary but at some point in the distant past even the Spanish forgot that 'v' is pronounced 'b' and 'voca' probably became 'boca'.
Here they are for listening practice.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Vocabulario | Vocabulary |
| Boca | Mouth |
The 'ary' rule
And while we're talking about vocabulary, words ending 'ary' in English change to 'ario' in Spanish.
we've seen this with "Vocabulary" changing to 'Vocabulario' but there are plenty of others. Here are a couple to end this lesson.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Necesario | Necesary |
| Contrario | Contrary |