Spanish 1-2 Unit 9 study games — Nature and Environment.
This unit covers weather expressions, animals and geography terms — essential concepts for Spanish 1-2. Use our interactive study games to test your understanding, or review questions in traditional format below.
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This unit covers weather expressions, animals and geography terms — essential concepts for Spanish 1-2. Use our interactive study games to test your understanding, or review questions in traditional format below.
Key Concepts Breakdown
1 Weather Expressions
In Spanish, most weather expressions use the verb 'hacer' (hace frío, hace sol) or 'estar' (está nublado, está lloviendo), not 'ser' or 'tener.' Students must know which verb each expression requires and be able to conjugate them correctly in the present tense. The verb 'llover' (to rain) and 'nevar' (to snow) are stem-changing verbs (o→ue) used as infinitives after 'hacer' or conjugated as third-person singular: llueve, nieva.
Key Points
- Use 'hace' for: frío, calor, sol, viento, fresco — NOT 'es' or 'hay'
- 'Hay' is used for: hay niebla, hay tormenta, hay nubes
- 'Está' is used for: está nublado, está lloviendo (present progressive)
- ¿Qué tiempo hace? = What is the weather like? — know this question and how to answer it
Fill in the blank: _______ mucho viento hoy. / _______ lloviendo afuera.
The first blank requires 'Hace' because 'viento' follows the hacer + weather noun pattern (Hace mucho viento). The second blank requires 'Está' because 'lloviendo' is a present participle (-ando/-iendo form), making it the estar + present participle construction (Está lloviendo). Confusing these two patterns is the most common exam error.
2 Animals
Students must know the Spanish names for common animals and apply correct gender agreement with articles and adjectives (el perro / la perra, el gato / la gata). On exams, animals appear in sentence completion, vocabulary matching, and short descriptive writing tasks where adjective agreement is graded. Some animals have a single gender form regardless of sex and require a gender marker word: el pez macho / el pez hembra.
Key Points
- Know at minimum 15 animals: perro, gato, caballo, vaca, pájaro, pez, serpiente, rana, oso, lobo, conejo, águila, tortuga, mono, elefante
- Apply gender/number agreement: Los osos pardos son grandes — adjective must match noun
- Habitat vocabulary often tested together: el bosque (forest), el océano, la selva, el desierto
- Verb 'vivir' is commonly used: El águila vive en las montañas
Translate: 'The brown horses are fast and the white rabbit is small.'
Horses (caballos) are masculine plural, so the adjective 'brown' becomes 'marrones' and 'fast' becomes 'rápidos': Los caballos marrones son rápidos. Rabbit (conejo) is masculine singular, so 'white' becomes 'blanco' and 'small' becomes 'pequeño': el conejo blanco es pequeño. Students lose points by writing 'blanca' or 'pequeña' for a masculine noun.
3 Geography Terms
Students must know Spanish vocabulary for landforms, bodies of water, and cardinal directions, and be able to use preposition phrases to describe location (al norte de, cerca de, entre). Exams frequently ask students to describe a map in Spanish or complete sentences using geographic vocabulary with correct article-noun gender agreement. Knowing which terms are masculine vs. feminine is essential since most geography nouns do not follow obvious rules.
Key Points
- Landforms: la montaña (f), el volcán (m), el valle (m), la colina (f), el desierto (m), la selva (f), el bosque (m)
- Water: el río (m), el lago (m), el océano (m), el mar (m), la cascada (f), la costa (f)
- Directions: al norte/sur/este/oeste de — always use 'al' (a + el) before masculine nouns
- Location prepositions tested: cerca de, lejos de, entre, al lado de — must be followed by correct article
Describe this location in Spanish: A lake is between two mountains, to the south of a forest.
Start with the lake using its feminine article: 'El lago está entre dos montañas' — 'montañas' is feminine plural so no article change needed after 'entre.' Then add direction: 'al sur de un bosque' — use 'al' because 'bosque' is masculine (a + el = al). Full answer: 'El lago está entre dos montañas, al sur de un bosque.' Students often write 'a el' instead of contracting to 'al,' which is a grammar error on exams.
Questions, answered.
What is Nature and Environment?
Nature and Environment is Unit 9 of Spanish 1-2, covering weather expressions, animals and geography terms.
How to study for Spanish 1-2 Unit 9?
Start with the Quick Summary above, review the Key Concepts, then test yourself with our interactive study games. Aim for 80%+ accuracy before moving on.
How many questions are in this unit?
This unit has 27+ review questions across 5 different game modes.