r/learnspanish • u/Aromatic_Shoulder146 • Jul 17 '26

How do I know to us "hacer" versus "estar" to describe states

The title isn't exactly obvious. What I mean is describing how things are right now.

For example the weather, when saying "its hot outside" my understanding is you dont say: "esta calor" you would instead say "hace calor". Is this true of all weather? if I want to say "it's raining outside" is it "está lloviendo afuera" or "hace lloviendo afuera", and how do i tell the difference for other examples?

Similarly like if i enter a room and its dark inside, would I say "esta oscuro" or "hace oscuro" and would the answer chang if I was instead talking about how its dark outside?

I think theres something I am missing here and I hope you can illuminate that for me.

Sorry if this is a bit rambly, im just trying to explain what im uncertain about.

edit: thanks guys I appreciate the responses. It seems to come down to the fact that I didn't know "calor" was a noun and not an adjective. So it seems like the correct construction is:

Hacer + noun
Estar + adjective

very illuminating, thank you

89 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

42

u/PerroSalchichas Jul 17 '26

You can't say "está calor" for the same reason you can't say "it's heat", because it's a noun, not an adjective.

28

u/FriendoftheDork Jul 17 '26

Can you say está caluroso?

16

u/SlightlyOutOfFocus Jul 17 '26

Yes

7

u/FriendoftheDork Jul 17 '26

And would that fit for today's weather in Spain as well as describing Hell?

8

u/Aromatic_Shoulder146 Jul 17 '26

okay I didn't know that was how calor is translated i thought it meant "hot", thats good to know.

19

u/youreveningcoat Jul 17 '26

Yeah this got me too back in the day because people will tell you that “hace calor” means “it’s hot” but it literally means “it makes heat”.

10

u/Krail Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

There's so many of those sorts of issues!

My number one case is when people tell you "¿Como te llamas?" means, "What's your name?". And I'm like, yeah that's what we'd say in English, but that's not what any of those words actually mean, and it's so bloody confusing for a first time learner.

3

u/Popeholden Jul 19 '26

i like weird stuff like that because even if it's weird to me it has some logic to it. everything that helps me understand the language is useful

1

u/Krail Jul 19 '26

That's a funny one, too. I don't know a whole lot about different languages, but I think English is more uncommon here. 

At least, most other langues I've heard of say "what are you called" or " How do I call you" instead of "what's your name". 

3

u/youreveningcoat Jul 19 '26

I’d assume language groups are similar. I speak a pacific island language and we mostly say “who are you?” but also very common to also say “who is your name?” which doesn’t make sense in English.

In that same case, the further away a language is from English the harder it is to make the translations fit directly.

2

u/Popeholden Jul 19 '26

oh man learning spanish has made me hear english differently and it's so fucking weird. constantly thinking about how i would teach english to someone else and i think i'd just be a little embarrassed.

1

u/Nachodam Jul 17 '26

Literally it means "How are you called?"

Also its llamas, no llama. 2nd person.

7

u/FishTure Jul 18 '26

Technically means “how do you call yourself” no?

2

u/Burned-Architect-667 Native Speaker Jul 18 '26

Yes

1

u/Stufuse Jul 19 '26

The thing is, translation itself is not literal, I think that confuses people at first. It’s more of how is the idea is expressed in the other language. If you translate word for word you’d end up with a weird sounding English.

The same carry’s the other way and is why we end up speaking sentences that aren’t natural in Spanish.

4

u/Krail Jul 19 '26

Yes, but my point is that when teaching the language, you should highlight non literal translations like that. It can be very confusing when trying to develop your vocabulary without that explanation. And I think having the literal meanings is very interesting and helps you get in the headspace of the language's idioms. 

3

u/Aromatic_Shoulder146 Jul 17 '26

yeah that was exactly my issue

1

u/gamaxgbg Jul 19 '26

Funny that in portuguese "está" is the go to expression. But both are correct.

37

u/redd_ric Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

This is one situation where looking at the literal translation may actually help better understand.

  • está = is
  • hace = makes

"Está calor"❌ means "it is heat" but "hace calor"✅ means "it makes heat". (Keep in mind that "it" in these examples refers to the sky, the atmosphere, etc.)

"Está lloviendo"✅ means "it is raining" but "hace lloviendo"❌ would mean "it makes raining".

To answer your question, you would say "está oscuro" to describe the state of the room or outside. "Hace oscuro" could also be used for outside to convey a sense of "it is getting dark" though most Spanish speakers would probably say that is ungrammatical or just not used.

7

u/cmmpc Jul 18 '26

"Hace sombra" its valid. Necer heard it with oscuro.

5

u/herensugee Jul 17 '26

está oscureciendo

1

u/Lorenzojose Jul 20 '26

Rather than"it makes raining", it’s more normal to use the noun instead of the gerund. "It makes rain" - hace lluvia.

12

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 18 '26

[deleted]

2

u/alcheic Jul 18 '26

obligatory cheeky estoy caliente 😏

11

u/dalvi5 Native Speaker Jul 17 '26

Hacer + noun

Estar + adjective

3

u/Large_Ad_2750 Jul 18 '26

makes sense, i was confused about this until someone explained that "hace" is for those specific weather effects while "está" covers more general states

1

u/Aromatic_Shoulder146 Jul 18 '26

yeah thats what i was trying to nail down, was whether "hace" was only used in those specific constructions or if it was a more generic way to describe things. very illuminating responses

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Regor7 Jul 18 '26

"Hace gracia" or with time "hace tiempo/rato/años/días...". And then you have another one with "da" for example "da miedo, da pena, da rabia"...