This cheat sheet covers common Spanish weather vocabulary for asking and answering questions about the weather. Students need these phrases to talk about daily conditions, seasons, and temperature in simple conversations. It helps learners choose the correct Spanish phrase pattern instead of translating word by word.
The focus is on short, useful expressions that are easy to read and remember.
The most important question is ¿Qué tiempo hace?, which means What is the weather like? Many weather answers use Hace, such as Hace sol, Hace frío, and Hace calor. Other weather phrases use Hay for things in the sky or air, such as Hay nubes or Hay viento.
Some conditions use Está, such as Está lloviendo and Está nevando.
Key Facts
- Use ¿Qué tiempo hace? to ask What is the weather like?
- Use Hace sol to say It is sunny.
- Use Hace calor to say It is hot, and use Hace frío to say It is cold.
- Use Hay viento to say It is windy, and use Hay nubes to say It is cloudy.
- Use Está lloviendo to say It is raining, and use Está nevando to say It is snowing.
- Use Hace buen tiempo to say The weather is nice, and use Hace mal tiempo to say The weather is bad.
- Use la temperatura to talk about the temperature, such as La temperatura es 20 grados.
- In Spanish, weather expressions often use hace, hay, or está instead of a direct word-for-word translation of it is.
Vocabulary
- ¿Qué tiempo hace?
- This question means What is the weather like?
- Hace sol
- This phrase means It is sunny.
- Hace frío
- This phrase means It is cold.
- Hace calor
- This phrase means It is hot.
- Hay viento
- This phrase means It is windy.
- Está lloviendo
- This phrase means It is raining.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Using es caliente for weather is wrong because Spanish usually says Hace calor to mean It is hot outside.
- Using es frío for weather is wrong because Spanish usually says Hace frío to mean It is cold outside.
- Forgetting accent marks in está is a mistake because esta without an accent means this, while está means is.
- Translating It is windy as Es viento is wrong because Spanish says Hay viento, which means There is wind.
- Mixing up Hace sol and Hay sol can confuse the phrase pattern because the common classroom weather phrase is Hace sol.
Practice Questions
- 1 Translate into Spanish: It is sunny and hot.
- 2 Answer in Spanish: ¿Qué tiempo hace? The temperature is 10 degrees and it is cold.
- 3 Translate into English: Está lloviendo y hay viento.
- 4 Explain why Hace frío is a better weather phrase than Es frío when describing the weather outside.