How to use 'hacerse' in Spanish | A Coffee Break with Anabel

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British scandal. I believe that's pretty good. Guilty as charged. And Danny Robbins' cold cases. But also there's a whole entirely free fringe program as well after parties, book signings, food and drink. We've basically got everything for an amazing weekend. Tickets are on sale now. Head to crosswires.live to get yours. Welcome to Coffee Break Spanish. Yo soy Annabel and I am very excited for today's little espresso episode in between main seasons of Coffee Break Spanish. Now, last week we celebrated our colleague's birthday and something they said really sparked my inner teacher. They said Me hago mayor. I'm becoming older. It was said in a jokey way. But every time I hear someone saying those words on their birthday, I always reply the same thing. No te haces mayor. Te haces más sabio. You're not becoming older. You are becoming wiser. Well, so far not many people looked convinced about my words. But this little exchange made me think of the verb hacerse. And how we can use it in Spanish. Así que vamos a echarle un vistazo. Hacerse is a reflexive verb and it's quite versatile. The first use I want to highlight is the one my colleague used. Hacerse to mean to become. Now, there are different ways to translate to become in Spanish. But we choose hacerse when we want to express a change in age, like in this case, profession, wealth, religion, ideology, and so on. Let's see some other examples to put this into context. The first one is Clara se ha hecho doctora y se está haciendo muy rica. Clara se ha hecho doctora. Se ha hecho here we can see the perfect tense of the verb hacerse. And it means Clara has become a doctor. It continues saying y se está haciendo muy rica. Se está haciendo this is the continuous tense we are using estar plus the gerund of hacerse. Se está haciendo muy rica and she's becoming or she's getting very rich. Then Clara se ha hecho doctora y se está haciendo muy rica means Clara has become a doctor and she's getting very rich in the sense of she's becoming very rich. Perfecto. And also in this sentence we can see that after hacerse we can have a noun doctora or an adjective rica. Now let's see another example because I know this can be a little bit tricky. The next one is te has hecho here again the perfect tense of the verb hacerse and pay attention to that te has hecho. Remember that is a reflexive verb. This means have you become vegetarian? Vegetarian have you become vegetarian? Te has hecho vegetariano and here after hacerse we have the adjective vegetariano. Perfecto. Ahora es cuando empieza la diversión. Now is when the fun starts because by adding the preposition a to hacerse we get one of my favorite verbs and it's very easy to use. I'm talking about hacerse a which means to get used to something. It is actually very similar to acostumbrarse a and in fact both are interchangeable and if this is the first time that you hear acostumbrarse a don't worry because it works like hacerse a so here you have two verbs for the price of one. Now both verbs mean to get used to something. Veamos un ejemplo. Now if we want to say I cannot get used to call winters we are going to start by using the verb hacerse a so we say no me hago a los inviernos fríos I can't get used to or I don't get used to cold winters no me hago a los inviernos fríos here we are using the verb hacerse a no me hago a and then los inviernos fríos if we want to use acostumbrarse a then it will be very similar no me acostumbró a los inviernos fríos both sentences no me hago a los inviernos fríos and no me acostumbró a los inviernos fríos both mean I cannot get used to cold winters bueno pues muy bien now what if we use the preposition gone instead of a hacerse gone means to obtain something difficult to get in the majority of the cases we can translate it as to manage to get something or to manage to obtain let's see this in context in our example te has hecho ya con las entradas para el concierto te has hecho con is have you managed to get then we have that yeah that is going to be translated as yet and then las entradas para el concierto the concert tickets so it means have you managed to get the concert tickets yet remember that yet te has hecho ya con las entradas para el concierto bueno as you can see a hacerse is a very versatile verb and can be combined in many ways there are other interesting uses of a third in Spanish in fact we explore one use of a hacerse that is a little bit more advanced in coffee break Spanish level four so if you want to continue improving your Spanish and to get to know this verb a little bit better be sure to check that out but we haven't finished yet no hemos terminado todavía we are going to review what we have seen today but you are going to help me i'm going to tell you the infinitive of the verb the structure and you'll tell me how we translate it so the first one is hacerse followed by an adjective or a noun how do we translate this ss to become to become is hacerse plus an adjective or a noun perfecto now hacerse a hacerse followed by the preposition a es we translated us to get used to and for extra points do you remember the other way we can say hacerse a in Spanish so estupendo now the last one hacerse con how do we translate hacerse followed by the preposition con es us to obtain something difficult to get so to manage to get something or to manage to obtain something momento if you would like to keep improving your Spanish you can receive regular free mini lessons straight to your inbox by signing up to our newsletter just go to coffee break languages dot com slash Spanish y además don't forget to subscribe whatever you are listening to this episode for more content like this one muchas gracias por quedarte hasta el final and i hope you have enjoyed learning about this verb hacerse and some ways in which it can be used hopefully you'll be able to use it soon mucho ánimo y hasta la próxima you have been listening to a coffee break languages production for the radio lingua network copyright 2025 radio lingua limited recording copyright 2025 radio lingua limited all rights reserved Britain has always been great we have a history of embracing outstanding technology it's the same at voxel we're energizing a better Britain with our range of electric vans we are the only vehicle manufacturer with a dedicated electric plant in the uk where we build our award-winning combo van from the british built combo to the versatile vivaro or the heavy duty movano we've got the electric van for you be part of an electric future visit your local voxel van retailer or search voxel van range today hi great james oh look it's alice laveen we're here to invite you to the world's biggest podcast festival crossed wires it's from the second to the fifth of july we are taking over iconic venues across sheffield with some of the uk's biggest podcasts including ellison john elizabeth dayes bringing how to fail the blind boy podcast the screen rot podcast with a special guest that'll be me bold politics with zack kalanski jack mate's happy hour british scandal i believe that's pretty good guilty as charged and danny robbins cold cases but also there's a whole entirely free fringe program as well after parties book signings food and drink we've basically got everything for an amazing weekend tickets are on sale now head to cross wires dot live to get yours