The question is \u00bfQu\u00e9 tiempo hace?<\/span> (What’s the weather like?), or \u00bfQu\u00e9 tiempo hace hoy en Madrid?<\/span> Remember that the h is always silent in Spanish: hace<\/span> is “AH-theh” in most of Spain and “AH-seh” in Latin America, and hay<\/span> sounds exactly like the English word “eye”.<\/p>\n\n The ll of llueve<\/span> is a y sound for most speakers. In Argentina and Uruguay it sounds closer to the sh of “shop” or the s of “measure”. The v of viento<\/span> and llueve<\/span> is a soft b, made with both lips.<\/p>\n\n English says “it’s” for almost everything. Spanish chooses its verb according to the word that follows, and this is the heart of the topic.<\/p>\n\n As in English, the simple present describes what usually happens and the continuous describes right now: En Galicia llueve mucho.<\/span> (It rains a lot in Galicia.) but Mira, est\u00e1 lloviendo.<\/span> (Look, it’s raining.)<\/p>\n\n In Spain you will often hear Hace bueno<\/span> for “It’s nice out”. In much of Latin America, people ask \u00bfC\u00f3mo est\u00e1 el clima?<\/span>, although in standard Spanish el clima<\/span> means the climate and el tiempo<\/span> the weather. Accept both, and teach \u00bfQu\u00e9 tiempo hace?<\/span><\/p>\n\n Spain and Latin America use degrees Celsius. Spanish-language media in the United States, and everyday speech in Puerto Rico, mostly use Fahrenheit.<\/p>\n\n Three words are easy to confuse, and the confusion can be embarrassing:<\/p>\n\n The forecast is el pron\u00f3stico del tiempo<\/span> or la previsi\u00f3n<\/span>; on Spanish TV the segment is simply called el tiempo<\/span>. Spain’s weather agency, AEMET, issues yellow, orange and red warnings: aviso amarillo<\/span>, aviso naranja<\/span>, aviso rojo<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n Ma\u00f1ana va a llover en el norte.<\/span>Tomorrow it’s going to rain in the north.<\/small><\/p>\n\n El fin de semana har\u00e1 sol y calor.<\/span>At the weekend it will be sunny and hot.<\/small><\/p>\n\n Habr\u00e1 tormentas por la tarde.<\/span>There will be storms in the afternoon.<\/small><\/p>\n\n Ayer llovi\u00f3 y hac\u00eda mucho fr\u00edo.<\/span>Yesterday it rained and it was very cold.<\/small><\/p>\n\n Forecast vocabulary: chubascos<\/span> (showers), intervalos nubosos<\/span> (cloudy spells), cielo despejado<\/span> (clear skies), una ola de calor<\/span> (a heatwave), una ola de fr\u00edo<\/span> (a cold snap), temperaturas en descenso<\/span> (falling temperatures).<\/p>\n\n For the past, pupils need two tenses: the preterite for an event (ayer llovi\u00f3<\/span>, nev\u00f3<\/span>, hizo sol<\/span>, hubo tormenta<\/span>) and the imperfect for a description (hac\u00eda calor<\/span>, estaba nublado<\/span>, llov\u00eda<\/span>). This is a classic GCSE writing point.<\/p>\n\n Weather is ideal for the start of a lesson because the answer changes every day, so the same few structures are recycled with real meaning.<\/p>\n\n This is exactly what a daily routine does: a real question, a quick collective answer, and an immediate correction.<\/p>\n\n Other short activities: a forecaster role-play in front of a map of Spain; a weather-and-clothes game (Si llueve, llevo un paraguas.<\/span>); comparing a city in Spain with one in Argentina the same day.<\/p>\n\n At KS2, stick to hace sol<\/span>, hace fr\u00edo<\/span>, llueve<\/span> with gestures. At KS3, work on the three structures and mucho<\/span>. At GCSE, weather is a natural way into the preterite, the imperfect and the future.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hace sol, est\u00e1 nublado, hay niebla, llueve: the three structures, temperatures, forecasts and the mistakes English speakers make.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"Weather in Spanish: Phrases and Forecasts | VocaDial","_seopress_titles_desc":"How to talk about the weather in Spanish: hace calor, est\u00e1 nublado, hay niebla, llueve, temperatures and forecasts, with a daily classroom routine.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_vd_topic":"meteo","_vd_target":"es","_vd_module":"tiempo","_vd_level":"A1","_vd_minutes":"7","_vd_card_word":"hace sol\u2026","_vd_answer":"To ask about the weather in Spanish, say \u00bfQu\u00e9 tiempo hace?<\/span> Answers use three structures: hace<\/span> + noun (hace sol<\/span>, hace fr\u00edo<\/span>), est\u00e1<\/span> + adjective (est\u00e1 nublado<\/span>) and hay<\/span> + noun (hay niebla<\/span>), plus weather verbs such as llueve<\/span> (it's raining) and nieva<\/span> (it's snowing).","_vd_faq":"[{\"q\":\"How do you ask \\\"What's the weather like?\\\" in Spanish?\",\"a\":\"\u00bfQu\u00e9 tiempo hace?<\\\/span> For a specific place: \u00bfQu\u00e9 tiempo hace en Madrid?<\\\/span>\"},{\"q\":\"Why is it hace calor and not es calor?\",\"a\":\"Spanish describes heat, cold, sun and wind with hacer<\\\/span> + a noun: hace calor<\\\/span>, literally \\\"it makes heat\\\". Es calor<\\\/span> is wrong.\"},{\"q\":\"Is it hace mucho fr\u00edo or hace muy fr\u00edo?\",\"a\":\"Hace mucho fr\u00edo<\\\/span>. Fr\u00edo<\\\/span> is a noun here, so it takes mucho<\\\/span>. With an adjective, use muy<\\\/span>: hace muy buen tiempo<\\\/span>.\"},{\"q\":\"How do you say \\\"it's raining\\\" in Spanish?\",\"a\":\"Llueve<\\\/span> or, for right now, est\u00e1 lloviendo<\\\/span>. \\\"It's snowing\\\" is nieva<\\\/span> or est\u00e1 nevando<\\\/span>.\"},{\"q\":\"How do you say the temperature in Spanish?\",\"a\":\"Hace 20 grados<\\\/span> or Estamos a 20 grados<\\\/span>. Below zero: dos grados bajo cero<\\\/span> or menos dos<\\\/span>. Spain and Latin America use Celsius.\"},{\"q\":\"What is the difference between tiempo and clima?\",\"a\":\"El tiempo<\\\/span> is the weather today; el clima<\\\/span> is the climate of a region. In much of Latin America, clima<\\\/span> is also used informally for the weather.\"}]","_vd_key":"meteo-es","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-57","vd_ressource","type-vd_ressource","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vd_ressource\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vd_ressource"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/vd_ressource"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vd_ressource\/57\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Spanish<\/th> English<\/th> Say it like<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> Hace sol.<\/td> It’s sunny.<\/td> AH-theh SOL<\/td><\/tr> Hace calor.<\/td> It’s hot.<\/td> AH-theh kah-LOR<\/td><\/tr> Hace fr\u00edo.<\/td> It’s cold.<\/td> AH-theh FREE-oh<\/td><\/tr> Hace viento.<\/td> It’s windy.<\/td> AH-theh BYEN-toh<\/td><\/tr> Hace fresco.<\/td> It’s chilly.<\/td> AH-theh FRESS-koh<\/td><\/tr> Hace buen tiempo.<\/td> The weather’s nice.<\/td> AH-theh bwen TYEM-poh<\/td><\/tr> Hace mal tiempo.<\/td> The weather’s bad.<\/td> AH-theh mal TYEM-poh<\/td><\/tr> Est\u00e1 nublado.<\/td> It’s cloudy.<\/td> ess-TAH noo-BLAH-doh<\/td><\/tr> Est\u00e1 despejado.<\/td> The sky is clear.<\/td> ess-TAH dess-peh-HAH-doh<\/td><\/tr> Llueve.<\/td> It’s raining.<\/td> YWEH-beh<\/td><\/tr> Nieva.<\/td> It’s snowing.<\/td> NYEH-bah<\/td><\/tr> Hay niebla.<\/td> It’s foggy.<\/td> eye NYEH-blah<\/td><\/tr> Hay tormenta.<\/td> There’s a storm.<\/td> eye tor-MEN-tah<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n Hace, est\u00e1 or hay?<\/h2>\n\n
Temperatures<\/h2>\n\n
Forecasts: el pron\u00f3stico del tiempo<\/h2>\n\n
Typical mistakes of English-speaking learners<\/h2>\n\n
In class: a daily weather routine<\/h2>\n\n
Adapting to your class<\/h3>\n\n