Spanish: Weather and seasons

When talking about the weather and seasons in Spanish there are two main verbs used:

• hacer - it does / it makes

• hay - there is / there are

Hacer is the verb most commonly used.

When using hacer to describe the weather the verb changes to ' hace'.

The literal translation of hace is 'it makes'. For example, hace calor means, literally "it makes heat" or "it does heat", but in English it sounds more sensible to say "it is hot".

Here are some examples of when you can use hace:

The silent 'h'

In Spanish, ‘h’ isn’t pronounced.

Instead it is silent, so it’s important to remember to emphasise the first vowel sound after the silent ‘h’.

For example, when you say hace (it is), the emphasis should be on the 'a'.

Did you know?

Like in English, in Spanish some verbs can be used on their own to form weather phrases.

The verb llover means 'to rain', so when describing that it is raining the verb changes to llueve (it rains).

Another example is the verb nevar (to snow).

To say 'it snows', the verb changes to nieva.

The seasons

The weather in Spain can differ depending on which part you are visiting.

In Winter it’s usually very cold, and in Summer it’s usually very hot.

Take a look at the Spanish words for the seasons below:

You can use the weather and season phrases together to create sentences, for example:

• En primavera hace sol - In spring it's sunny

• En verano hace calor - In summer it's hot

• En otoño hace fresco - In autumn it's cool

• En invierno hace frío - In winter it's cold