There is often confusion, not only for learners of Spanish as a foreign language but also for natives, about the spelling of some forms of the Spanish verbย echar and the Spanish verb hacer.ย Their spelling is nearly the same and there is no difference phonetically speaking in some of their verbal forms: echo, echa, echas, hecho, hecha, hechos, hechas
Echo vs Hecho
Echo
Echoย is the 1st person singularย (yo) of the verbย echarย (to throw/put). Here are some examples:
Echoย can also be part of other idioms using the verb echar, with a specific meaning. For instance, to sayย "to miss someone" we say, for example:
Or to say for example "to keep an eye on someone/something", we can also useย echar, for example:
You can findย more expressions here: Spanish expressions with "echar".
Hecho
Hecho is the past participle form of the verb hacer, as inย "ya he hecho los deberes"ย (I've already done my homework"). This past participle is always written with an h as it comes from theย verb hacer.ย
As a past participle/adjective used with estar, hecho/hechos/hecha/hechas often translates asย "done/made". As adjectives they need to agree in gender and number:
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Hecho/hechosย can also be a masculine noun meaning "a fact, an incident, an event": un hecho/unos hechos. With this meaning only the masculine form is used. Here are some examples with this meaning:
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Echas vs Hechas
Echasย is the 2st person singularย (tรบ) of the verbย echarย (to throw/put). Here are some examples:
And being part of expressions with the verbย echar, for example:
Hechas,ย as mentioned before is the feminine plural adjective/past participleย ofย hacer, often used withย estar or in the passive with ser:
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Echa vs hecha
Echaย is the 3rd person singularย (รฉl, ella, usted) of the verb echarย (to throw/put) in the present tense and also the imperative (affirmative) for theย tรบย form of the verb echar. Here are some examples:
Hecha, as mentioned previously, is the past participle ofย hacer in the feminine singular form, so you will find it in sentences withย estar, ser and other similar verbs,ย agreeing with a feminine singular noun.
Here are some examples:ย
To get the spelling right, be careful to recognize where these forms come from, is it fromย echar or from hacer?ย ย
Here are some sentences where they can appear together:
Note that in order to test your knowledge, kwiz questions for this lesson will not include an English translation.
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