Hive SQL is a query language built on top of Hadoop. It allows users to query data stored in Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) or other data storage systems compatible with Hadoop. Unlike standard SQL, which is optimized for relational databases, Hive SQL is optimized for processing large datasets distributed across a cluster of machines. This makes it ideal for handling big data workloads. Hive SQL provides extensions to standard SQL, such as handling data in various formats (like JSON or CSV), working with partitions, and using user-defined functions (UDFs). It translates SQL queries into MapReduce jobs or other optimized processing techniques for distributed execution. This distributed processing is key to handling the massive volumes of data often found in data warehouses and big data environments.