To express "how long ago" something happened, in Spanish you use:
Hace + [length of time] + que + verb in El Pretérito Indefinido
Have a look and listen to these examples:
-¿Dónde está Jaime? -Hace dos horas que se fue.
-Where is Jaime? -He left two hours ago.
Hace dos días que pasó el accidente.
The accident happened two days ago.
Hace una década que terminé mis estudios.
I finished my studies a decade ago.
Careful, because in Spanish this structure needs to be placed at the beginning of the sentence as shown in the examples above.
You cannot use a specific date between hace and que. It must be a "length of time" (un minuto, dos horas, seis meses, un año...)
"Hace ayer que fuimos al cine."
"Hace el otro día que tuvimos una discusión."
See also Use "hace" for "ago" with El Pretérito Indefinido as an alternative to Hace + [lengh of time] +que.
To see other uses of "hace" to express time see also:
- Using desde (hace) with El Presente instead of El Pretérito Perfecto to express since/for
- Using Hace + length of time + que + present tense to say how long one has done something for
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