What's the difference between it's (es) and it's (hace)?
****emphasized text*It's cold*** is Hace fresco. Other times the word ***it's*** is es. Why? How do I know when to use 'hace' or 'es'?
3 Answers
It may just be one of those things that you have to learn rather than analyze. There are other verbs that can translated as "to be" in English. Another common one is Tener...Tengo frío. I am cold.
Ella es frío. She has a cold personality.
La pared está frío. The wall is cold (to the touch).
Like anyone learning English as a foreign language, you just have to memorize these combinations. You'll have less frustrations if you avoid comparing Spanish to English, because they are different languages. There is no why.
The verb "hacer" generally means "to make" or "to do". It is, however used in talking about the weather for sure. Go to the link "Learn Spanish" above. This is discussed in lesson 1.14 within the "Lesson One" link there. Or you can go directly there with this link: http://www.spanishdict.com/learn/show/15.
Estar and Ser are the verbs for "to be". So conjugated forms of these verbs are how you would say "it is", depending upon what you are trying to say. Lesson 1.11 discusses the differences in these verbs and when they are to be used.
You can take a look at those two lessons-- 1.14 and 1.11 -- to see a little of what I am talking about. But, my suggestion would be to start at the beginning. The lessons are very good and set up in such a way that it normally doesn't take a lot of studying to get the concepts in each lesson--especially the 15 parts in the Lesson One list. I would start with each video. After you watch a video, I would practice with the flashcards then move on to the scored exercises. It's totally free. Give it a try. You'll be surprised how quickly you get through lesson 1.15.
