We are going to learn how to express, as the title of this post says, the weather. We have actually two ways to express so, and both are completely fine. One of these ways is (as we do in English to describe the weather) using the verb SER. The other one, is a very own Spanish expression and in our eyes it is going be hard for you to understand how we build it and how it works grammatically.
But we are going to try our best. Here it comes first, our very own Spanish expression in weather matters:
¿QUÉ TIEMPO HACE EN BARCELONA?
WHAT WEATHER MAKES IN BARCELONA?
Here it is. This is what we ask when we want to know how the weather is like in a place.
→ The first thing that we have to say is that HACE is the 3rd person singular of the verb HACER which means to DO/MAKE.
This verb HACER is used in a non-personal form when using this weather expression; what does that mean? Basically means that there is no subject; we will see it later on in an example.
→ The second thing is the noun TIEMPO. This noun itself means TIME and also in climate matters, WEATHER of course.
Let’s see a little bit deeper what we are trying to say when we are talking about a non-personal expression. Remember the verb form HAY? It is used in present also in a non-personal form to describe what is around us, and as a non personal expression, it has no subject; Let’s review it:
¿QUÉ HAY EN BARCELONA?
WHAT IS THERE IN BARCELONA?
→ Telling the place:
EN BARCELONA HAY MUCHAS ESCUELAS
IN BARCELONA THERE ARE MANY SCHOOLS
→ Without telling the place:
HAY MUCHAS ESCUELAS
THERE ARE MANY SCHOOLS
◊ Note that we are talking about a non personal expression (no subject) when using HAY and it will be the same when expressing weather with this very Spanish expression:
¿QUÉ TIEMPO HACE EN BARCELONA?
WHAT WEATHER MAKES IN BARCELONA?
→ Telling the place:
EN BARCELONA HACE CALOR
IN BARCELONA MAKES HEAT
◊Note:
- BARCELONA is not the subject in this sentence; in fact as we have told you, there is no subject. EN BARCELONA is a place complement; this is why the place where we are telling how the weather is like in Spanish, will always come introduced by the preposition EN → EN BARCELONA.
- CALOR is not the adjective HOT, is the noun HEAT.
→ Without telling the place:
HACE CALOR
MAKES HEAT
A little bit complicated, isn’t it? Well, we recommend you to learn and express this expression by heart without thinking much about its grammar, just the way it comes:
¿QUÉ TIEMPO HACE EN BARCELONA?
WHAT WEATHER MAKES IN BARCELONA?
EN BARCELONA HACE CALOR
IN BARCELONA MAKES HEAT
Or:
HACE CALOR
MAKES HEAT
◊ Remember: It is a non personal expression when we use HACE in weather terms!
→ This is a first introduction and we are not going to put more information in your mind; let’s keep going with TIEMPO in coming posts.
