HOT HOT HOT
How to talk about heat and being hot in Spanish.
Use ‘estar’ + ‘caliente’ to talk about ‘things’ being literally hot.
agua caliente = hot water
La arena está caliente. The sand is hot.
La sopa estaba demasiado caliente. The soup was too hot.
El café con leché que estoy tomando no está muy caliente.
The milky coffee that I’m drinking isn’t very hot.
Giving warmth and comfort
Tengo unos zapatos muy calientes para el invierno.
I have some really warm shoes for winter.
Getting closer to something that is being looked for or guessed at (eg. in a game).
¡Caliente, caliente!, sigue preguntando.
Really hot, really hot, keep asking.
Things having an elevated temperature
No planches esta camisa con la plancha muy caliente.
Don’t iron this shirt with the iron up too hot.
If you’re talking about places being hot, bear in mind that you’re really referring to the weather so you use hacer.
Don’t say …. La playa estaba calurosa.
Instead say … Hacía mucho calor en la playa.
You can also ‘caluroso’ to talk about the ‘day’ being hot as well as to refer to someone’s personality or a welcome as
being ‘warm’.
una calurosa bienvenida = a warm welcome
‘Cálido’ is another option when speaking about the weather, climate, someone’s personality etc but you can’t use it with things.
El tiempo es caluroso/cálido (but not caliente).
The weather is hot.
Nicaragua tiene un clima cálido.
Nicaragua has a hot climate.
Hay colores cálidos y hay colores fríos.
There are warm colours and cold colours.
This is perhaps regional but in some places people who don’t seem to feel the cold can be described using ‘ser caluroso’.
Mira a Pedro en camiseta y estamos a 8º. Sí es muy caluroso.
Look at Peter just wearing a shirt and it’s only 8 degrees. Yes doesn’t feel the cold.
Other translations for ‘hot’
de moda = the latest thing out
picante = spicy
la noticia candente = the ‘hot’ topic
estar bueno/a = to be attractive
temperamento irascible, mal genio = hot headed, bad tempered
discusión acolorada = heated discussion
robado = hot as in ‘stolen’
alterado/a = hot and bothered
noticias calientes = latest news (hot off the presses)