Spanish Weather & Impersonal Verbs: Hace, Hay & Llueve
In English, we need the dummy pronoun "it" to talk about nature ("it rains", "it is cold"). Spanish has no dummy subject. Instead, it uses strictly third-person singular unipersonal verbs and specialized constructions with hacer and haber.
1. Atmospheric "HACER"
Ambient weather sensation & climate
(It makes cold / hot / sun)
2. Existential "HABER"
Presence or existence (strictly singular)
(There is / was / will be)
3. Pure Weather Verbs
Verbs of precipitation & daylight
(It rains, it snows, it thunders)
1. Atmospheric "Hacer" vs. "Estar"
English speakers often translate "It is cold" literally into *Está frío. In Spanish, estar frío is only used for physical objects (like iced drinks or soup), never for the ambient weather:
- Hoy hace mucho frío. (It's very cold today)
- En verano hace calor. (In summer it's hot)
- Hace viento y hace sol. (It's windy and sunny)
- El café está frío. (The coffee is cold)
- La sopa está caliente. (The soup is hot)
- El cielo está nublado. (The sky is cloudy — participle)
2. The Golden Rule of Existential "HAY": Strictly Singular
In the present tense, everyone says "Hay un libro" and "Hay cinco libros" without issue. But in past and future tenses, many learners (and even native speakers in colloquial dialects) mistakenly pluralize haber. In standard Spanish, existential haber NEVER takes a plural form!
| Tense | Correct Standard Spanish | Common Mistake to Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Imperfect | Había muchas personas. | Habían muchas personas. |
| Preterite | Hubo dos accidentes ayer. | Hubieron dos accidentes. |
| Future | Habrá varios cambios. | Habrán varios cambios. |
3. Pure Weather Verbs: Stem Changes
Meteorological verbs undergo the standard Romance stem modifications even though they only conjugate in the 3rd person singular:
- Llover (o → ue): "En primavera llueve a menudo." / Preterite: "Ayer llovió todo el día."
- Nevar (e → ie): "En la sierra nieva en enero." / Preterite: "Anoche nevó copiosamente."
- Tronar (o → ue): "Parece que truena a lo lejos."
- Amanecer / Anochecer: "En invierno anochece muy temprano." (In winter it gets dark early.)