Spanish weather vocabulary: hace sol, llueve and the seasons
El tiempo esta semana · pick a city, then a day
Lunes en Madrid · 31° / 17°
Haceit-makessol.sun
AH-theh SOL · “It’s sunny.”Why:Sol is a noun, so it takes hace. At 31° you could add: hace mucho calor.
Short answer: ask ¿Qué tiempo hace?, “what’s the weather like?”. Answer with hace + a noun (hace calor, literally “it makes heat”), está + an adjective (está nublado), hay + a noun (hay niebla), or one verb on its own: llueve, nieva. Temperatures are in grados Celsius.
Hace, está, hay, or a verb
Four patterns for every kind of weather
Which pattern you use depends on the kind of word. Heat, cold, sun and wind are nouns (naming words), so they follow hace and take mucho for “very”: hace mucho calor, never muy calor. Sky conditions are adjectives (describing words) and follow está. Tap any phrase to hear it.
hace + nounheat, cold, sun, wind
está + adjectivehow the sky looks
hay + nounthings in the sky
a verb on its ownrain, snow, ice
Temperatures
¿A cuántos grados estamos?
A degree is un grado, and below zero is bajo cero. Spanish says “we are at” a temperature: estamos a veinte grados. Drag the thermometer.
es-TAH-mohs ah BAYN-teh GRAH-dohs. AH-theh bwen TYEM-poh · “It’s twenty degrees. The weather’s nice.”Why:Estamos a + degrees gives the temperature. Tiempo means both “weather” and “time”.
The weather vs. you
Hace frío or tengo frío?
Hace describes the weather. For how you feel, Spanish uses tener (to have): “I have cold”. Using estoy frío would mean your body is cold to the touch.
Outside · hace
Haceit-makesfrío.cold
AH-theh FREE-oh · “It’s cold (outside).”
Haceit-makesmuchomuchcalor.heat
AH-theh MOO-choh kah-LOR · “It’s very hot.”
Your body · tengo
TengoI-havefrío.cold
TEN-goh FREE-oh · “I’m cold.”
¿Tienesyou-havecalor?heat
TYEH-nes kah-LOR · “Are you hot?”
Las estaciones
The seasons, north and south
Seasons are written with a small letter. Half the Spanish-speaking world is in the southern hemisphere, where they fall in the opposite months: Christmas in Buenos Aires is in verano.
El pronóstico
Reading a TV forecast
Forecasts use the future tense (forms meaning “will …”), shown in red: lloverá, “it will rain”; habrá, “there will be”. More in the future and conditional.
Mañanatomorrowlloveráwill-raineninel norte.the north
mah-NYAH-nah yoh-beh-RAH en el NOR-teh · “Tomorrow it will rain in the north.”Lloverá: llover + -á, the future ending for “it”.
Las temperaturasthe temperaturesbajaránwill-fallpor la noche.at night
lahs tem-peh-rah-TOO-rahs bah-hah-RAN por lah NOH-cheh · “Temperatures will drop overnight.”Bajar, to go down; subir, to go up.
Habráthere-will-betormentasstormspor la tarde.in the afternoon
ah-BRAH tor-MEN-tahs por lah TAR-deh · “There will be storms in the afternoon.”Habrá is the future of hay.
Haráit-will-makesolsuneninel sur.the south
ah-RAH SOL en el SOOR · “It will be sunny in the south.”Hará is the future of hace.