Welcome to Can-Do Spanish by SpanishPod101.com. |
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about the weather in Spanish. |
For example, "It’s so hot!" is |
¡Hace mucho calor! |
Valeria Varela sees her neighbor, Claudia Borrego Contreras , and starts a conversation about the weather. |
Before you hear their conversation, let's preview some of its key components. |
calor |
"heat" |
calor |
calor |
Listen to the conversation, and focus on Valeria’s comment. |
Ready? |
¡Hace mucho calor! |
Sí, ¿verdad? |
Once more with the English translation. |
¡Hace mucho calor! |
"It’s so hot!" |
Sí, ¿verdad? |
"Yes, right?" |
Let's break down the conversation. |
Do you remember how Valeria says, |
"It’s so hot!" |
¡Hace mucho calor! |
Let’s start with calor, meaning "heat." Calor. Calor. |
In Spanish, all nouns have grammatical gender and are either singular or plural. Calor is masculine and singular — a fact which will determine the form of other words in the sentence. |
Before calor is mucho, literally, “much,” but translates as “so,” as in “so hot.” Mucho. Mucho. |
Mucho is masculine singular to agree with calor. |
Together, mucho calor, literally, “much heat,” but translating as "so hot." Mucho calor. |
Starting the sentence is hace, translating as “is,” as in “ is,” in this context. Hace. Hace. |
Note: hace is from the verb hacer, meaning, "to do," or “to make,” but in this instance, when talking about the weather, it translates as "to be." Hacer. |
All together, ¡Hace mucho calor! literally “It makes much heat,” but translates as “It’s so hot.” ¡Hace mucho calor! |
Valeria is expecting her neighbor to respond after she says, |
¡Hace mucho calor! |
Let's take a closer look at the response. |
Do you remember how the neighbor says, |
"Yes, right?" |
Sí, ¿verdad? |
First is sí, meaning "yes." Sí. Sí. |
Next is ¿verdad? translating as, "Right?" ¿Verdad?. ¿Verdad? |
Here ¿Verdad?, “right?” is used to express agreement with the speaker. |
Notice the intonation illustrating strong agreement. |
Translation note: ¿verdad? could translate here as “isn’t it,” as in “Yes, , isn’t it?” |
All together, Sí, ¿verdad? "Yes, right?" |
Sí, ¿verdad? |
The pattern is |
¡Hace WEATHER CONDITION! |
"It’s WEATHER CONDITION!" |
¡Hace WEATHER CONDITION! |
To use this pattern, simply replace the WEATHER CONDITION placeholder with a weather condition. |
Note: This pattern requires a noun or a noun phrase. In this lesson, you'll learn nouns related to the weather that you can use with this pattern. |
Imagine it's cold. Frío. "Cold." Frío. Frío. |
Say |
"It’s so cold!" |
Ready? |
¡Hace mucho frío! |
"It’s so cold!" |
¡Hace mucho frío! |
In Spanish, there are several patterns used to talk about the weather. This lesson focuses on the pattern hace weather condition. |
However, in Spanish, you can’t just use any noun with this construction. It’s restricted to a small set of nouns, such as the nouns covered in this lesson, and some others: |
sol, “sun,” viento, “wind,” buen tiempo, “nice weather,” mal tiempo, “bad weather,” among others. |
Note: Hace {noun}. "It’s {noun}." Is also a commonly used phrase. |
¡Hace frío! It’s cold. |
¡Hace calor! It’s hot. |
Again, the key pattern is |
¡Hace WEATHER CONDITION! |
"It’s WEATHER CONDITION!" |
¡Hace WEATHER CONDITION! |
Let's look at some more examples. |
Listen and repeat or speak along with the native speakers. |
¡Hace mucho calor! |
"It's so hot!" |
¡Hace mucho calor! |
¡Hace mucho frío! |
"It's so cold!" |
¡Hace mucho frío! |
¡Hace mucho viento! |
"It's so windy!" |
¡Hace mucho viento! |
¡Hace buen tiempo! |
"It's nice weather!" |
¡Hace buen tiempo! |
¡Qué calor hace! |
"How hot!" |
¡Qué calor hace! |
Did you notice how the last speaker used a different pattern? |
¡Qué calor hace! |
"How hot it is!" Or in more natural English, “How hot!” |
¡Qué calor hace! |
First is qué, “what...,” or "how...," in this context. Qué. Qué. |
Next is calor, "heat." Calor. |
Finally, hace, translating as “is,” as in “ is,” in this context. Hace. |
All together, ¡Que calor hace! literally “What heat it makes,” but translates as “How hot!” ¡Que calor hace! |
This pattern uses an exclamation, and it’s meant to elicit a response from the listener. |
The pattern is: |
¡Qué WEATHER CONDITION hace! |
"How WEATHER CONDITION it is!" |
To use this pattern, simply replace the WEATHER CONDITION placeholder with a weather condition. |
Note, this pattern requires a noun. |
For example, ¡Qué frío hace! “How cold it is!” Or in more natural English, “How cold!” ¡Qué frío hace! |
You should be aware of this pattern, but we won’t use it for this lesson. |
Let's review the key vocabulary. |
Frío. “Cold.” |
Frío. |
Frío. |
Viento. |
"Wind." |
Viento. |
Viento. |
Buen tiempo. |
“Nice weather.” |
Buen tiempo. |
Buen tiempo. |
Let’s review. |
Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then repeat after the native speaker, focusing on pronunciation. |
Ready? |
Do you remember how to say “hot,” literally "heat"? |
calor |
calor |
And how to say “so hot,” literally, “much heat"? |
Mucho calor. |
Mucho calor. |
Do you remember how Valeria Varela says, |
"It’s so hot!" |
¡Hace mucho calor! |
¡Hace mucho calor! |
Do you remember how to say "yes?" |
Sí. |
Sí. |
And do you remember how Claudia Borrego says, |
"Yes, right?" |
Sí, ¿Verdad? |
Sí, ¿Verdad? |
Do you remember how to say "cold?" |
frío |
frío |
And how to say "wind?" |
viento |
viento |
Do you remember how to say "nice weather?" |
buen tiempo |
buen tiempo |
Let's practice. |
Imagine you're Claudia , Valeria’s neighbor. Comment to Valeria that it’s very cold, or frío. |
Ready? |
¡Hace mucho frío! |
Sí, ¿verdad? |
Listen again and repeat. |
¡Hace mucho frío! |
¡Hace mucho frío! |
Let's try another. |
Imagine you're Ben Lee Catalina Hurtado. Comment to your classmate that it’s very windy, or viento. |
Ready? |
¡Hace mucho viento! |
Sí, ¿verdad? |
Listen again and repeat. |
¡Hace mucho viento! |
¡Hace mucho viento! |
Let's try one more. |
Imagine you're Mark Lee Hugo Hurtado. Comment to your neighbor that it’s very nice weather, or buen tiempo. |
Ready? |
¡Hace buen tiempo! |
Sí, ¿verdad? |
Listen again and repeat. |
¡Hace buen tiempo! |
¡Hace buen tiempo! |
¿Verdad? is a universal tag question that can be attached to most statements. Think of it like the “right?” in the sentence, “It’s good, right?” |
Like tag questions in English, it comes in handy when you seek agreement or have confidence in what you just said. |
It's also easy to use, since it doesn't depend on the verb of the statement. |
Well done! This is the end of this lesson. |
In this lesson, you learned how to give an opinion about the weather, an essential skill for talking about the weather. |
Remember, these Can Do lessons are about learning practical language skills. |
What's next? |
Show us what you can do. |
When you're ready, take your assessment. |
You can take it again and again, so try anytime you like. |
Our teachers will assess it, and give you your results. |
Keep practicing — and move on to the next lesson! |
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