Spanish Question

[bben15]

In the sentence, "Mi cumpleaños fue hace tres semanas," why is the "hace" before the "tres semanas" instead of after?

Thank you.

[newyorkcatholic]

In the sentence, "Mi cumpleaños fue hace tres semanas," why is the "hace" before the "tres semanas" instead of after?

Thank you.

"Hace" is being used part of a standard phrase. To say "<x units of time ago>" in Spanish, you say "hace <x units of time>." Two days ago = hace dos días. Five minutes ago = hace cinco minutos.

So the sentence above is "My birthday was three weeks ago."

[m.PR]

"Hacer" primarily means to do and to make. You may think of this expression as saying, "the time that has passed since my birthday makes up three weeks." Though as newyorkcatholic says, it is a standard expression and it works just like "three weeks ago."