haz los deberes
/aθ los debeɾes/from spelling rules
To say "do your homework" in Spanish, you use haz los deberes.
This phrase is used to instruct someone to complete school assignments given by a teacher to be done at home.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase haz los deberes literally translates to "do the duties".
Which one should you use?
While haz los deberes is a standard way to express this, hacer la tarea is a common alternative used to mean "to do homework".
How does it change in a sentence?
The phrase haz los deberes uses the informal imperative (tú) command. To tell a group of people to do their homework, use the plural command hagan los deberes. The infinitive form is hacer los deberes.
How do you pronounce it?
/aθ los debeɾes/
Did you know?
- The word deberes comes from deber, which means 'to owe'. In Spanish, doing homework is conceptually framed as paying a debt or fulfilling an obligation.
- In Spanish, the word tarea can refer to a school assignment or a tedious household chore. This makes the phrase hacer la tarea more ambiguous than the English 'do your homework'.
- In some contexts, los deberes describes a person's entire moral compass and social obligations in life, not just a worksheet from a teacher.
Examples in context
- Haz los deberes solo.Do your homework by yourself.This sentence is useful for practicing how to tell someone to do their homework by themselves using haz los deberes.Tatoeba #1574745 by Shishir, translation #1458904 by CK
- Haz los deberes.Do your homework.This sentence is useful for a simple command to do homework using haz los deberes.Tatoeba #809481 by Shishir, translation #266698 by CK
- Por favor, realice su tarea antes de nuestra próxima reunión.Please do your homework before our next meeting.
- Haz tu tarea antes de salir a jugar.Do your homework before going out to play.
- Termina tu tarea y luego podremos ver la película juntos.Finish your homework, and then we can watch the movie together.
- Antes de jugar, haz los deberes.Before playing, do your homework.
- 1 more sentence on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Sofía is telling her brother to study.
- SofíaAlejandro, haz los deberes ahora.Alejandro, do your homework now.
- AlejandroNo quiero, estoy cansado.I don't want to, I'm tired.
- SofíaTienes que terminar la tarea.You have to finish the assignment.
- AlejandroEstá bien, lo haré.All right, I'll do it.
Sources
- IPA marked “from spelling rules” is derived from standard Spanish spelling, where Wiktionary gives none.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
