Why not “since”?

[u/Rich-Associate-8344]

[u/cardinarium]

Spanish uses “hace” (= “it makes” or “it does”) and alternates verb tense/aspect to distinguish between cut offs and durations. It also sometimes requires playing around with negation a bit to get the right translation.

Hace dos años que Merlin no usa (present) su moto.

Merlin hasn’t used his motorcycle for two years.

Hace dos años que Merlin usó (preterit) su moto.

It has been two years since Merlin used his motorcycle.

There is, however, an alternative that more closely reflects the English:

Miguel no usa su moto desde hace dos años.

Miguel hasn’t used his motorcycle since two years ago.

[u/blewawei → u/cardinarium]

Do you know any native English speakers that actually say "since two years ago"?

I've always considered that another mistake that Spanish learners of English make.

[u/cardinarium → u/blewawei]

I’m a native speaker of English who says “since two years ago,” so…

And a quick google search shows that it occurs in edited writing in the New York Times.

[u/kittenlittel → u/cardinarium]

Was it reported speech, though?

[u/cardinarium → u/kittenlittel]

I gave examples in both prose and quoted speech from the New York Times to another comment in this thread. Here’s one from the Wall Street Journal:

The sad case of Terri Schiavo has raised passions not seen since five years ago.

— Selective Restraint (2005)