La primavera — spring — is one of the most poetic seasons, and the Spanish language has plenty to say about it. Whether you're looking to expand your spring vocabulary in Spanish, learn how to talk about the weather, or discover some beautiful seasonal expressions, you've come to the right place. Let's dive in!
Flores means "flowers" and florecer means "to flower" or "to bloom." But there are also other words such as the verb aflorar (to bloom), which is also used figuratively meaning "to pop up," "to emerge" or "to appear." You can even use it to say something as un-spring-like as: Su instinto asesino afloró de pronto (His killing instinct suddenly emerged).
Spanish also has the poetic adjective florido (full of flowers, flowery):
Luz y sonido, grande y florido
Light and sound, big and flowery
Caption 1, Aterciopelados - Al parque
Play Caption
And the participle adjective florecido, also "full of flowers:"
Por la senda florecida que atraviesa la llanura
Along the flowered path that crosses the plain
Caption 9, Acercándonos a la Literatura - José Asunción Silva - "Nocturno III"
Play Caption
There is also the verb florear (literally, "to adorn with flowers" or "to make look like a flower") with many, many different uses. For example, florear means "to compliment" or "to say beautiful things." From that come the expressions echar flores, decir flores, tirar flores (literally, to throw or say flowers):
Gracias, te agradezco mucho las flores que me estás tirando.
Thanks, I thank you very much for your compliments [literally "the flowers that you are throwing me"].
Caption 18, Muñeca Brava - 45 El secreto
Play Caption
Enough of flores. The verb aparear (to mate or reproduce, literally "to pair") is a pertinent choice:
Las ballenas vienen a Gorgona a aparearse y tener sus crías.
The whales come to Gorgona to mate and to have their offspring.
Caption 52, Instinto de conservación - Gorgona
Play Caption
Anidar means "to nest," and by extension "to shelter." You can use it figuratively as in: En su corazón anida la amargura (His heart harbors bitterness). The corresponding noun is nido (nest), a word that you can learn, along with many other palabras primaverales (spring words), by watching the trippy song Jardín (Garden) by Liquits:
De pronto una cigüeña me lleva de paquete bebé al nido
Suddenly a stork takes me as a baby package to the nest
Captions 14-15, Liquits - Jardín
Play Caption
Spring weather can be unpredictable — one day soleado (sunny), the next lluvioso (rainy)! In Spanish, describing the weather involves a mix of adjectives and verb structures. For example, hace sol (it's sunny), llueve (it's raining), and hay viento (it's windy) are all expressions you'll hear constantly during la primavera.
Así que llueve un poco, pero los días suelen estar soleados.
So it rains a bit, but the days tend to be sunny.
Captions 19-20, Clara explica El tiempo - Part 1
Play Caption
📌 Want to go deeper into weather vocabulary and expressions in Spanish? Check out our complete guide: [Talking About the Weather in Spanish: Essential Vocabulary and Expressions]
To finish this lesson, let's explore a beautiful figurative use of the word primavera (spring). Just like "springtime" in English, primavera in Spanish can denote the earliest and usually most attractive period of something's existence. By extension, it's commonly used as a synonym for "youth," or even "years," in expressions such as hoy ella cumple sus veinte primaveras (she is celebrating her twentieth anniversary). Here's a lovely example from Reyli's song Qué nos pasó:
¿Quién te llenó de primaveras esos ojos
Who filled with springtimes those eyes of yours
que no me saben mentir?
which don't know how to lie to me?
Captions 12-13, Reyli - Qué nos pasó
Play Caption
From flowers and nesting to weather expressions and poetic uses of la primavera, Spanish offers a wonderfully rich set of tools for talking about this season. Keep practicing these words and expressions, and don't be afraid to sprinkle some palabras primaverales into your next Spanish conversation!
Got questions about spring vocabulary in Spanish or any other Spanish topic? We'd love to hear from you — send us your thoughts and questions, and we'll do our best to help. ¡Hasta la próxima!
One of the most common prefixes used in Spanish is a. This prefix is very interesting because when coming from the Latin prefix ab- or abs-, a- denotes separation or privation, but when coming from the Latin prefix ad-, a- denotes approximation or presence. Another interesting and useful aspect of this prefix is that it can be added to certain nouns and adjectives to form verbs.
Let's compare the different uses of the prefix a-. Take the word ausente (absent). This is a perfect example of the use of the prefix a- to indicate separation. We have a full movie titled El Ausente:
Ya llegó el que andaba ausente
Now he arrived, the one who was absent
y éste no consiente nada...
and this one does not allow anything...
Captions 9-10, El Ausente - Acto 3
Play Caption
Strikingly enough, the prefix a- can also mean approximation or presence. A good example is the verb asistir meaning "to attend":
Siempre hemos de asistir personalmente a la entidad bancaria.
We should always go personally to the banking entity.
Caption 13, Raquel - Abrir una cuenta bancaria
Play Caption
Much more practically useful is to know that we can add the prefix a- to other words, like nouns and adjectives, to form verbs. Below is an example from a video published this week. The verb acostumbrar (to get used to) is formed with the prefix a and the noun costumbre (custom, use):
Vea, Pepino, hay sitios donde les enseñan a los animales
Look, Pepino [Cucumber], there are places where they teach animals
a que se vuelvan a acostumbrar a su hábitat.
to become used to their habitat again.
Captions 10-11, Kikirikí - Animales
Play Caption
Now, using the noun tormento (torment) we get the verb atormentar (to torment):
Eso seguro era algo que podía atormentarlos.
That surely was something that could torment them.
Caption 46, La Sub30 - Familias
Play Caption
There are so many! From susto (fright) you get asustar (to scare):
¡Ay no, Candelario! No me asustes.
Oh no, Candelario! Don't scare me.
Caption 44, Guillermina y Candelario - La Isla de las Serpientes
Play Caption
You can also use adjectives. For example, lejos (far) and cerca (close) give us alejar (to put or to go far away), and acercar (to put or to get close):
Después me alejaré
Then I will go away
Caption 22, Reyli - Qué nos pasó
Play Caption
Ella trataba de acercarse a mí.
She tried to get close to me.
Caption 9, Biografía - Pablo Echarri
Play Caption
Here is a list with more examples. Maybe you can find them in our Spanish catalog.
Tonto (fool) - atontar (to fool or become a fool)
Plano (flat) - aplanar (to flatten)
Grande (big) - agrandar (to make bigger)
Pasión (passion) - apasionar (to become passionate)
Nido (nest) - anidar (to form a nest)
Morado (purple) - amoratar (to get or give bruises)
Francés (French) - afrancesar (to become French-like)
Grieta (crack) - agrietar (to crack)
French
German
Italian
Chinese
English
English 
Français
Deutsch
Español
Italiano
Português
