Cuando hace mucho frío, prefiero quedarme en casa y beber té caliente.

In Spanish, many weather expressions use hacer:

• hace frío = it’s cold
• hace calor = it’s hot
• hace viento = it’s windy

So hacer here does not literally mean to make in the usual sense. It is just the normal Spanish pattern for talking about certain weather conditions.

Es frío usually means it is cold in the sense that something or someone is cold by nature, for example:

• Este país es frío. = This country is cold.
• El mármol es frío. = Marble is cold.

But for general weather right now, Spanish normally uses hace frío.

Because mucho and muy do different jobs.

• muy modifies an adjective or adverb: muy frío = very cold
• mucho can go with certain nouns or weather expressions: mucho frío = a lot of cold / very cold weather

In the expression hace mucho frío, Spanish treats frío a bit like a noun inside this weather structure.

Compare:

• Hace mucho frío. = It’s very cold.
• Está muy frío. = It is very cold.

So mucho frío is the normal phrase with hacer.

Spanish often leaves out subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

• prefiero = I prefer

So yo prefiero is possible, but yo is not necessary.

You would include yo only if you want emphasis or contrast, for example:

• Yo prefiero quedarme en casa, pero ella prefiere salir.

Without emphasis, just prefiero sounds natural.

Because preferir is a stem-changing verb in the present tense.

The e in the stem changes to ie in most forms:

• yo prefiero
• tú prefieres
• él/ella prefiere
• nosotros preferimos
• vosotros preferís
• ellos prefieren

So prefiero is irregular, but very common. This is something you simply need to learn with the verb.

Because the verb here is quedarse, not just quedar.

• quedar can mean things like to remain, to be left, to arrange to meet, depending on context
• quedarse often means to stay or to remain oneself in a place

In this sentence, quedarme en casa means to stay at home.

So:

• prefiero quedarme en casa = I prefer to stay at home

If you said prefiero quedar en casa, that would not mean the same thing and would sound wrong in this context.

After a conjugated verb like prefiero, the next verb is in the infinitive. With reflexive verbs, the reflexive pronoun can attach to that infinitive.

So:

• prefiero quedarme = I prefer to stay

This is the standard structure:

• prefiero + infinitive

Because quedarse is reflexive, its pronoun stays with it:

• quedarme
• quedarte
• quedarse
• etc.

You could not say prefiero me quedar. That is incorrect.

Because they both depend on prefiero.

The structure is:

• prefiero + infinitive + y + infinitive

So:

• prefiero quedarme
• y beber té caliente

This is like English I prefer to stay at home and drink hot tea. Spanish often uses the infinitive after verbs like preferir, querer, poder, necesitar, etc.

En casa is the normal idiomatic way to say at home.

• en casa = at home
• en la casa = in the house

Spanish uses en casa when the idea is simply being at home in general, not talking about a specific building as an object.

Examples:

• Estoy en casa. = I’m at home.
• Me quedo en casa. = I’m staying at home.

If you say en la casa, it sounds more literal, as if you are talking about the house itself.

In Spanish, adjectives usually come after the noun.

So:

• té caliente = hot tea
• café frío = cold coffee
• agua mineral = mineral water

Putting the adjective before the noun is sometimes possible, but it often changes the tone, emphasis, or meaning. For a basic descriptive phrase like this, té caliente is the normal order.

The accent distinguishes té meaning tea from te meaning you as an object pronoun.

• té = tea
• te = you

Examples:

• Bebo té. = I drink tea.
• Te veo. = I see you.

So the accent is important because it changes the meaning.

Because here cuando means something like when or whenever in a general, habitual sense.

• Cuando hace mucho frío, prefiero quedarme en casa... = When/Whenever it’s very cold, I prefer to stay at home...

This is a general truth or repeated situation, so the present tense is natural.

If you were talking about a future event, Spanish often uses the present after cuando too:

• Cuando llegue el invierno, me quedaré más en casa.

So Spanish does not always match English tense patterns after when.

It is acceptable and very natural here because the sentence begins with a subordinate clause:

• Cuando hace mucho frío, prefiero...

The comma helps separate the introductory clause from the main clause.

In shorter sentences, Spanish punctuation can sometimes be a bit more flexible than English, but in this kind of sentence, the comma is a good choice and is commonly used.

Yes. Both are correct.

• beber té = to drink tea
• tomar té = to have/drink tea

In everyday Spanish, especially in Spain, tomar is extremely common for drinks:

• tomar un café
• tomar té
• tomar una cerveza

Beber is also correct, but it can sound a little more direct or literal as to drink. In this sentence, either works well.

It can suggest both, depending on context.

In this sentence, the meaning is general and habitual, so English often understands it as whenever:

• Cuando hace mucho frío, prefiero quedarme en casa... = Whenever it’s very cold, I prefer to stay at home...

But translating it as when is also fine if the general meaning is already clear.

So the Spanish cuando is broad enough to cover both ideas here.

Not exactly. They are related, but they are not the same.

• quedarme en casa = to stay at home
• estar en casa = to be at home

In this sentence, quedarme emphasizes the decision to remain there instead of going out.

So:

• prefiero quedarme en casa = I prefer to stay at home

If you said prefiero estar en casa, it would mean I prefer to be at home, which is possible, but slightly different in nuance.