Learn Spanish (Spain): En invierno hay nieve en la sierra. - In winter there's snow in the mountains.

En invierno hay nieve en la sierra.

In winter there's snow in the mountains.

Breakdown of En invierno hay nieve en la sierra.

in / on / by (means of transport) / about (after pensar)

Questions & Answers about En invierno hay nieve en la sierra.

Why is it just "en invierno" and not "en el invierno"?

In Spanish, when you talk about something happening during a season in a general way, you usually just use en followed by the season, without the definite article (el or la). So, en invierno translates directly to "in winter".

Why does the translation say "in the mountains" for "en la sierra" instead of using "montañas"?

While montañas means "mountains," a sierra specifically refers to a mountain range. The word literally means "saw," describing the jagged peaks. In Spain, it is very common to refer to the local mountain range simply as la sierra.

Could I use "está" instead of "hay" to say the snow is there?

No, because we are talking about the existence of snow (there is snow), not the location of a specific, defined patch of snow. When you want to say "there is" or "there are" to point out that something exists, you always use hay.

Why isn't there an article before "nieve"? Shouldn't it be "hay la nieve"?

We do not use definite articles (el, la, los, las) after hay when talking about things in general. Since snow is an uncountable noun here, we just say hay nieve (there is snow), just like how we omit "the" in English.