"spent" when talking about time

Question

I am wondering how one might say a sentence such as any of the following in Spanish:

• Tell me how much time you spent doing your homework yesterday.
• I spent a week in Spain over the summer.
• He spent countless hours working on the farm.

I looked through the dictionary entries here and found the verb "dedicar" to be the closest equivalent (at least to the first and last sentence above). Is this correct? Does anyone have any other suggestions/examples/translations of the above sentences to put it into perspective for me?

Below are my attempts at translating "spent":

• Me digas cuánto tiempo dedicaste a hacer tu tarea ayer.
• Pasaré una semana en España durante el verano.
• Dedicó mucho tiempo trabajando en la granja.

All input/suggestions/corrections/etc. are more than welcome!!

Thank you all in advance.

Alyssa

Answer 1

I would use the verb "pasar" - maybe like this:

Dime cuánto tiempo pasó haciendo tu tarea ayer.

Me pasé una semana en España durante el verano.

Pasó muchas horas de trabajo en la granja.

I am not a native speaker so wait for one to come along.

We live in hope! And why has my asnwer come up in italics?? - annierats, Feb 7, 2013

Pasaba, I think, for all that farmwork without a start or finish. I know,from experiece, a blur . - annierats, Feb 7, 2013

I'm glad someone is having a look at my stuff Annie:) - ian-hill, Feb 7, 2013

If I change the sentence so that I specifically ask for HOURS, do I still use "pasar"? Ex: Tell me how many hours you spent doing math./Dime cuantas horas pasaron haciendo las matematicas. ?? - AlyssaLTerry, Feb 7, 2013

Answer 2

Tell me how much time you spent doing your homework yesterday.
Dime cuanto tiempo pasaste haciendo tus deberes, ayer.


I spent a week in Spain over the summer.
Pasé una semana en España durante el verano. 

He spent countless hours working on the farm. 

Pasaba muchas horas trabajando en la finca.

suggestions only. - annierats, Feb 7, 2013

Answer 3

I used to use gastar in relation to wasting time or money but one day I was told that gastar is used for money and perder is used for time. But that was in relation to waste not spending. However for your first sentence I like dedicar.

Me digas cuánto tiempo dedicaste a hacer tu tarea ayer.

I would change it slightly by using the imperative and a slight change of word order.

Dime cuánto tiempo dedicaste ayer haciendo tu tarea.

Pasaré una semana en España durante el verano.

Pasaré is future tense as in I will pass. So instead use pasé.

The third looks fine to me. But I'm not a native speaker.

Answer 4

Gastar also means spent and was the Word of the Day recently. If you look up gastar in translate and find the posting for the word of the Day for Spent, I sure yuou will find a wealth of discussion.

Buena Suerta

gastar is spend, so that it is lost. Pasar is to spend time, which may be gainful, after all. - annierats, Feb 7, 2013

My thoughts Annie :) - ian-hill, Feb 7, 2013

Answer 5

See also word of day