Mucho frío vs. Muy frío

Question

Hi,

I'm trying to rewrite a sentence. The sentence is "Mi dormitorio estaba mucho frío."

Why does 'mucho' not work in this sentence?

Answer 1

I'm going to take a crack at this, but if you want to make sure, wait for confirmation from others.

frío can be either a noun or an adjective, just as cold can be either in English.

Frío with estar is an adjective.

Frío with tener is a noun.

muy can only be an adverb, never an adjective so it can't modify a noun.

mucho/mucha/muchos/muchas are adjectives so they can only modify nouns

mucho can be an adverb and it can modify a verb, however it can't modify an adjective like most other adverbs can.

So, the reason mucho is wrong is because frío is an adjective when used with estar. Mucho can not modify an adjective. You have to use muy or some other full-function adverb that can modify an adjective. (e.g. extremadamente)

So, you can either say:

Mi dormitorio tenía mucho frío, here mucho is an adjective and frío is noun

Mi dormitoria estaba muy frío, here muy is an adverb (as always) and frío is an adjective.

Hopefully you're already aware that it is very common to use tener (to have) in Spanish to refer to cold, heat, hunger, thirst etc, For example: Tengo frío = literally: I have cold = I am cold (common English usage) So while the first sentence above with tenía might look strange, it isn't.

Answer 2

Just to add a little to what Ken has said:

You can also say "Hace mucho frío en el dormitorio."

You can use the verb "hacer" with any noun pertinent to weather. Hace calor, frío, sol, viento, sol, etc.

Estos gatitos sí tienen frío.

Great point Dani. - DilKen, Apr 12, 2017