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Grammar Summary

Spanish 1 Unidad 3 Etapa 3

Describing the Weather

A. To talk about the weather in Spanish, we often use the verb hacer:

B. When you talk about the sun or the wind, you can also use hay:

Hay sol y hay viento = It's sunny and it's windy

C. To talk about raining and snowing, use the verbs llover (o-->ue) - to rain and nevar (e --> ie) - to snow:  Llueve mucho en el oeste del estado de Washington.  Nieva mucho en la montaña Rainier.

D. To say that it's cloudy, use the expression está nublado.  (TRIVIA QUESTION:  Why is it está nublado and not es nublado?  See the answer at the bottom of the page.)

Special Expressions Using tener

You have already learned that someone is hungry or thirsty and to tell a person's age using the verb tener.  It is also used in many other "idiomatic expressions."

Direct Object Pronouns

A "direct object" is a word that receives the action of a verb directly.  (In the sentence "Paco buys shoes" the action of buying goes directly from Paco to the shoes.)   An "indirect object" is a word that indirectly receives the action of a verb.  (In the sentence "Paco buys shoes for us" the action of buying goes directly from Paco to the shoes and then indirectly to us, because we end up wearing them!)  Right now we are concerned only with direct objects.

A direct object answers the questions "Whom?" or "What?" as in "Whom do you see?" or "What did you buy?"   Nouns used as direct objects can be replaced by direct object pronouns:

The direct object noun is placed after the conjugated verb, but a direct object pronoun is placed before the conjugated verb OR after the infinitive if there is one:    Yo compro la blusa.   Yo la compro.  Yo la voy a comprar/Yo voy a comprarla.

Saying What is Happening 'Right Now':   Present Progressive

The Present Progressive is the equivalent of using -ing in English when you want to talk about what is happening "right now."   ("We can't play baseball right now.  It's raining!")   The Present Progressive is a two-part construction, using the present indicative tense of estar + the present participle of a verb.  To form the present participle, drop the infinitive ending of the verb and add -ando for -AR verbs and -iendo for -ER/-IR verbs.  When the stem of an -ER/IR verb ends in a vowel, the spelling of -iendo changes to -yendo. (leer - leyendo, oir - oyendo, creer - creyendo)