Hace calor: how to say it's hot in Spanish

Hoy es muy caliente gets understood, but it describes the day as if it were a plate of food. In Spanish, weather is made.

You said

Hoy es muy caliente.

What it means: Today is a very hot thing. (odd)

A local says

Hoy hace mucho calor.

It's really hot today.

Why: Weather uses hacer: hace calor, hace frío. Caliente is for things you can touch.

A bus stop in San Salvador, midday

Uf, hoy es muy caliente.

The woman next to you nods politely and fans herself. "Sí, hace un calorón."

In English the weather is: it's hot, it's cold, it's windy. Spanish makes it, with hacer: hace calor, hace frío, hace viento, hace sol. The word after hace is a noun (heat, cold, wind, sun), so it takes mucho, not muy: hace mucho calor.

Caliente is an adjective for things you touch: el agua está caliente, la sopa está muy caliente. Put it on the day and the day sounds like a hot object. Put it on a person and it's a different slip entirely, the famous estoy caliente. For how you feel, use tener: tengo calor.

A few weather phrases skip hacer: está nublado (it's cloudy), está lloviendo (it's raining) and hay neblina (it's foggy). And when it's truly hot, the whole region agrees on ¡qué calor!

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Also worth knowing

Spanish	English
¡Qué calor!	It's so hot!
En la noche hace frío.	It gets cold at night.
Está lloviendo, lleva paraguas.	It's raining, take an umbrella.

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Questions people ask

How do you say it's hot in Spanish?

Hace calor. Hoy hace mucho calor means it's really hot today. For cold, hace frío.

Why is it hace calor and not es caliente?

Spanish describes weather with hacer (to make): hace calor, hace frío, hace sol, hace viento. Caliente describes things you touch, like coffee or water.

Is it muy calor or mucho calor?

Mucho calor. Calor is a noun, so it takes mucho, the same as mucho frío and mucho viento.

How do you say I'm hot?

Tengo calor. That's about how you feel, so it uses tener.