Hace sol? Hace nubes?

Question

Hola,

I'm learning about weather and I noticed that they say "to make/to do"..+ whatever the weather is.. instead of saying "es sol" they say "hace sol"

Does anyone know why hace is used? Or just because? Lol.

Thx!!

• Sharon

Welcome to the forum! - 00b6f46c, Oct 5, 2011

Answer 1

And one thing, we don't say "Hace nubes", is "Hay nubes" o "Esta nublado" ^^

Answer 2

Notice that it's "hace" - that's third person singular. "The god(s)" is the likely subject of the verb, revealing the ancient roots of this expression.

Edit:

One note about llover - a full conjugation is shown in the conjugation page here, but it's one of a set of Defective Verbs - verbs that are not really conjugated in all possible forms.

Hmm. I like thinking of it that way. That will definitely help me remember it. Is this just your theory, or have you heard/read that somewhere before? - MrSillyInc, Oct 5, 2011

Our grammar and etymology guru, lazarus1907, once posted something about it here, and I've been looking for that. I'll let you know if I find it again. Very interesting. - pesta, Oct 5, 2011

Watch the youtube video of the song Lluevo :) - lorenzo9, Oct 5, 2011

Answer 3

This is of course what we call idiomatic expressions and they are used frequently with the weather. Here are some examples: ¿Qué tiempo hace?= whats the weather like Hace buen tiempo= its nice out, hace mal tiempo=it's bad out, hace calor=it's hot, hace frío= it's cold out, hace fresco= it's cool out, hace sol= it's sunny, hace viento= it's windy. You don't use it with it's cloudy= está nublado or it's raining (snowing)= está lloviendo (nevando)..hope that helps!

Answer 4

In English, why does "It's hot." usually refer to the temperature when "She's hot." usually doesn't?

Answer 5

Thank you all for replying!

Pesta, wow that's an interesting observation, I'll definitely research that. Thanks

Answer 6

Hi Sharon!

This is one of the weirdest things about Spanish, in Spanish they use the verb Hacer to talk about weather, it's just one of those things you have to learn, and it would still be translated as ''it's sunny'' and not ''make sunny''!

Answer 7

actually it's like french when u say what's the weather like? we use in french faire=hacer but it's definitley weired

u should be spelled out "you". Spelling error "weird". Please try to use correct spelling and capitalization (forum rules!) to help students of English who also use this site. - pesta, Oct 5, 2011

Answer 8

It is one of the more than 50 different meanings of the verb "hacer". It tells how the weather is like:

Hace mucho calor! Hace mucho frío. Hace buen tiempo. Hace mal tiempo...