Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Aunque haga viento, mi madre quiere caminar un poco por el campo. - Even if it is windy, my mother wants to walk a bit through the countryside.

Aunque hace viento → even though it is windy
- The wind is presented as a known fact.
- The speaker accepts it as real.
Aunque haga viento → even if it is windy / even though it may be windy
- The wind is seen as possible, hypothetical, or not important to the decision.
- The idea is: “Whether it’s windy or not, my mother still wants to walk.”

In your sentence, aunque haga viento suggests the mother’s decision does not depend on whether it’s actually windy; she’ll walk anyway.

Exactly what form is haga? What tense/mood/person is it?

Haga is:

verb: hacer
tense: present
mood: subjunctive
person: 1st person singular (yo haga) and 3rd person singular (él/ella/usted haga)

It comes from the yo form of the present indicative hago:

Take hago
Drop the -o → hag-
Add subjunctive endings:
- yo haga
- tú hagas
- él/ella/usted haga
- nosotros hagamos
- vosotros hagáis
- ellos/ellas/ustedes hagan

Here it stands for the impersonal “it” in haga viento (that it be windy).

Could I say Aunque hace viento, mi madre quiere caminar…? Would that still be correct?

Yes, aunque hace viento is also correct, but the nuance changes:

Aunque hace viento
- The speaker treats “it’s windy” as a real, known fact.
- Roughly: “Even though it is windy (and we know it is), my mother wants to walk.”
Aunque haga viento
- The wind is possible / not yet known / not central.
- Roughly: “Even if it is windy (or turns out to be windy), my mother wants to walk.”

In everyday speech you’ll hear both. Context and tone decide whether the speaker is talking about a real present fact (hace) or a possible or not-yet-verified situation (haga).

Why is there no it in haga viento? In English we say “it is windy”.

Spanish normally doesn’t use a subject pronoun for weather expressions. Instead, it uses:

An impersonal verb:
- Llueve – It’s raining
- Nieva – It’s snowing
Or a verb + a noun:
- Hace frío – It’s cold
- Hace viento – It’s windy

There is no equivalent of English dummy “it”; the structure itself is impersonal. So haga viento literally means something like “(that) wind be made / there be wind”, but idiomatically it’s just “(that) it be windy”.

Why is quiere in the present tense? In English I might say “my mother will want to walk” or “wants to go for a walk”.

Spanish often uses present indicative for:

Current desires or intentions:
- Mi madre quiere caminar – My mother wants to walk / wants to go for a walk (now or in general).
Near future plans, especially if context is clear:
- Mañana mi madre quiere caminar por el campo. – Tomorrow my mother wants to walk in the countryside.

Using querrá (future) would sound more like a prediction or speculation:
Mi madre querrá caminar… – My mother will probably want to walk… (guessing).

So quiere here is the natural, neutral way to express her present wish or decision, even if the walk is slightly in the future.

Is there any difference between querer caminar and querer ir a caminar?

Both are understandable, but they’re not used in exactly the same way:

Querer caminar
- Most straightforward: to want to walk (as an activity or type of movement).
- Very natural in sentences like:
  - Mi madre quiere caminar un poco.
  - Quiero caminar más para hacer ejercicio.
Querer ir a caminar
- Literally: to want to go to walk → to want to go for a walk.
- Grammatically fine, but in Spain it’s less common than:
  - querer dar un paseo – to want to go for a walk / a stroll
  - querer salir a caminar – to want to go out for a walk

In everyday European Spanish, mi madre quiere caminar un poco por el campo or mi madre quiere dar un paseo por el campo would sound more idiomatic than quiere ir a caminar.

Why use caminar here instead of andar or pasear?

All three exist, but they have different typical uses and tones:

Caminar – to walk
- Neutral, often used for walking as movement or exercise.
- Quiero caminar un poco. – I want to walk a bit.
Andar – to walk / to go
- Very common in Spain, a bit more colloquial / broad in meaning:
  - andar can be “to walk”, “to go around”, “to work/function” (for machines), etc.
- In your sentence: Mi madre quiere andar un poco por el campo is also fine and natural.
Pasear – to stroll / to walk for pleasure
- Focuses on walking leisurely, not as mere locomotion:
  - Mi madre quiere pasear un poco por el campo.

So caminar is a clear, neutral choice. Andar or pasear would both be acceptable with slightly different nuance (passeggiata / stroll vs just walking).

Why is it por el campo and not en el campo or al campo?

The choice of preposition changes the idea slightly:

Caminar por el campo
- por emphasizes movement through / around a place:
  - to walk around / through the countryside
- This is the most natural here, because the mother is walking around that area.
Caminar en el campo
- en = in / inside.
- Focuses on location, not so much on moving around:
  - to walk in the countryside (as opposed to in the city)
- Grammatically fine, but less idiomatic in this exact sentence than por el campo.
Ir al campo
- a + el = al, meaning to the countryside:
  - Mañana vamos al campo. – Tomorrow we’re going to the countryside.
- This talks about going there, not about walking around once you’re there.

In short: por el campo is best here because the verb is caminar, and caminar por X is the usual pattern for “walking around/through X”.

Why do we say el campo here? Could we just say por campo?

You normally need the article el in this meaning:

el campo = the countryside (as a type of place, in general)
por el campo – around the countryside / through the countryside

Saying por campo without an article is not idiomatic in this sense. It might appear in very specific fixed expressions or poetic language, but not in normal speech.

Also note that campo in Spanish can mean:

countryside / rural area – Vivo en el campo.
field (sports field) – el campo de fútbol
field of study – el campo de la medicina

In your sentence, el campo clearly means the countryside.

Could we change the word order to Mi madre quiere caminar un poco por el campo, aunque haga viento? Is there any difference?

Yes, that order is also correct. The main difference is what you highlight:

Aunque haga viento, mi madre quiere caminar…
- Starts with the obstacle (the wind).
- Emphasis: “Despite the wind, she wants to walk.”
Mi madre quiere caminar…, aunque haga viento.
- Starts with what she wants, then adds the obstacle as a kind of afterthought.
- Emphasis: “She wants to walk, even if it’s windy.”

Both are grammatical; it’s mostly a question of style and focus.

Do we need the comma after viento?

Yes, it’s standard and recommended to use the comma there:

When the aunque-clause comes first, it’s usual to separate it with a comma:
- Aunque haga viento, mi madre quiere caminar…
When it comes second, you also normally use a comma:
- Mi madre quiere caminar…, aunque haga viento.

Without the comma, the sentence is still understandable, but punctuation rules in Spanish favor that pause between the concessive clause (aunque…) and the main clause.

Why is it viento (singular), not vientos?

In weather expressions, viento is usually treated as an uncountable mass noun, similar to “wind” in English:

Hace viento. – It’s windy / there is wind.
No hace viento hoy. – It isn’t windy today.

The plural vientos does exist, but it sounds poetic, literary, or very specific, for example:

Los vientos del norte. – The winds from the north.
Talking about different kinds or directions of wind.

In everyday sentences about the weather, you almost always see viento in the singular.