Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): La niebla hace que los barcos naveguen despacio cerca de la costa. - Fog causes boats to sail slowly near the coast.

In Spanish, when you want to express that one thing causes another to happen, you typically use hacer que + a subordinate clause. Here La niebla hace que… means “The fog causes that…,” so it introduces the effect (“the ships sailing slowly”). This construction also requires the next verb to be in the subjunctive.

Why is naveguen in the subjunctive and not the indicative (navegan)?

After hacer que, if the subject of the main clause (la niebla) is different from the subject of the subordinate clause (los barcos), Spanish uses the present subjunctive to express that causal relationship. So we say hace que los barcos naveguen (not navegan).

Why do we include los before barcos, even though we’re talking generally about “ships”?

Spanish often uses the definite article to talk about things in general. Los barcos here means “ships as a category.” In English you’d drop the article (“ships”), but in Spanish the article stays.

Why is despacio used instead of an adjective or a different adverb like lentamente?

Despacio is an adverb meaning “slowly” and is more colloquial, especially in Latin America. It doesn’t change form (it’s invariable). You could also use lentamente, which is a standard adverb from the adjective lento, but many speakers prefer despacio in everyday speech.

Why do we say cerca de la costa instead of costa cercana to mean “near the coast”?

To express “near” in terms of location, Spanish uses the adverbial phrase cerca de + noun. Costa cercana would be interpreted as “the nearby coast” (using cercano as an adjective), which is slightly different and less common for describing where something happens.

Can we replace hacer que with other verbs like provocar or causar?

Yes. Verbs such as provocar or causar also express cause and effect, and they too typically take que + subjunctive when the subject changes. For example: La niebla provoca que los barcos naveguen despacio. The nuance is similar, though hacer que is especially common in everyday speech.

Could we drop que and say La niebla hace navegar despacio a los barcos?

No, that structure is unnatural in Spanish. If you want to use hacer with an infinitive, you’d need a direct object and a (“hacer + infinitive + a + person”), but Spanish prefers hacer que + subjunctive for expressing this kind of causation.

Is it possible to move despacio to another position in the sentence?

Adverbs of manner like despacio are somewhat flexible, but the most natural spot is right after the verb: naveguen despacio. You could say naveguen cerca de la costa despacio, but it sounds clunkier. Keeping despacio immediately after naveguen makes the meaning clearer.