When you want to express an activity or distance with a definitive start and end, you can use the pair of prepositions desde and hasta. In English, its equivalent would be from ... to ...
Spanish
English
Estudié en España desde el 2016 hasta el 2020 que regresé a Paraguay.
I studied in Spain from 2016 until 2020 when I returned to Paraguay.
Desde and Hasta to Express Distance
Rule 1. You can use these prepositions when you want to indicate a distance with a starting and ending point.
Spanish
English
Tienes que cortar desde aquí hasta acá.
You have to cut from here to here.
El tren va desde el sur de Bogotá hasta el norte.
The train runs from the south of Bogotá to the north.
Desde and Hasta to Express Time
Rule 2. Following the same rule, we can use these prepositions when speaking of time to establish when an activity started and ended.
Spanish
English
Mi hermano estará viajando desde enero del año pasado, hasta diciembre de este año.
My brother will be traveling from January of last year until December of this year.
Viví en Portugal desde 2009 hasta 2012.
I lived in Portugal from 2009 to 2012.
Form
Rule 3. In both cases, the preposition desde is usually placed before the word indicating the starting point, and hasta is placed before the word indicating the ending point.
Prepositions De and A
Rule 4. Another set of prepositions that practically have the same usage as desde and hasta is the combination de and a. It could be said that in the spoken language, de and a are used to talk about time or shorter distances, while desde and hasta are reserved for longer distances.
However, it is important to note that this does not mean that one is correct for one purpose and the other set is not. It is simply what is more comfortable or common for some speakers.
Spanish
English
Trabajo de Lunes a Jueves, de 2:00 p.m a 9:00 p.m.
I work from Monday to Thursday, from 2:00 p.m to 9:00 p.m.
Quiz
1/3
Desde is used for ___________ .
0
correct answers.