Spanish words Echo and Hecho

There is often confusion, not only for learners of Spanish as a foreign language but also for natives, about the spelling of some forms of the Spanish verb echar and the Spanish verb hacer. Their spelling is nearly the same and there is no difference phonetically speaking in some of their verbal forms: echo, echa, echas, hecho, hecha, hechos, hechas

Echo vs Hecho

Echo

Echo is the 1st person singular (yo) of the verb echar (to throw/put). Here are some examples:

Echo can also be part of other idioms using the verb echar, with a specific meaning. For instance, to say "to miss someone" we say, for example:

Or to say for example "to keep an eye on someone/something", we can also use echar, for example:

You can find more expressions here: Spanish expressions with "echar".

Hecho

Hecho is the past participle form of the verb hacer, as in "ya he hecho los deberes" (I've already done my homework"). This past participle is always written with an h as it comes from the verb hacer. 

As a past participle/adjective used with estar, hecho/hechos/hecha/hechas often translates as "done/made". As adjectives they need to agree in gender and number:

Hecho/hechos can also be a masculine noun meaning "a fact, an incident, an event": un hecho/unos hechos. With this meaning only the masculine form is used. Here are some examples with this meaning:

Echas vs Hechas

Echas is the 2st person singular (tú) of the verb echar (to throw/put). Here are some examples:

And being part of expressions with the verb echar, for example:

Hechas, as mentioned before is the feminine plural adjective/past participle of hacer, often used with estar or in the passive with ser:

Echa vs hecha

Echa is the 3rd person singular (él, ella, usted) of the verb echar (to throw/put) in the present tense and also the imperative (affirmative) for the tú form of the verb echar. Here are some examples:

Hecha, as mentioned previously, is the past participle of hacer in the feminine singular form, so you will find it in sentences with estar, ser and other similar verbs, agreeing with a feminine singular noun.

Here are some examples: 

To get the spelling right, be careful to recognize where these forms come from, is it from echar or from hacer?  

Here are some sentences where they can appear together:

Note that in order to test your knowledge, kwiz questions for this lesson will not include an English translation.