How to Describe a RAINY Day in English

Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson about rain.

It's a rainy day here in Ontario, Canada,

so I thought it would be a good time

to go outside with my camera.

Hopefully I don't get soaked.

Hopefully I don't get too wet,

and do a little English lesson about rain.

So in this English lesson,

I'll help you learn some words and phrases

you can use to talk about a rainy day in English.

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I want to start this English lesson about rain

by talking about two words.

I want to talk about the word rain and the word showers,

and sometimes we actually even put them together

and say rain showers.

We use both of those words to talk about a rainy day.

In fact, the weather forecast this morning

said, "Rain, heavy at times,"

and then on a different part of the weather forecast,

it said, "Showers today, heavy at times,"

So you can use those words somewhat interchangeably.

You can also put them together, like I said before.

You could say rain showers.

There's gonna be a few rain showers today.

In fact, the rain's getting a little heavier as I speak.

I really hope I don't get too wet while I make this lesson.

Before we move on, though, with the rest of the lesson,

if this is your first time here,

don't forget to click that red subscribe button

and give me a thumbs up if this video helps you learn

just a little bit more English.

Now let's continue with the lesson.

I should also tell you the difference

between a rainstorm and a thunderstorm.

Sometimes it rains for a long time,

and it rains really, really hard,

and we would call it a rainstorm,

but only if there's no thunder and no lightning.

If it rained for a long period of time,

and it was really heavy rain

and there was thunder and lightning,

we would then call it a thunderstorm.

So really, the only difference is that,

with a rainstorm, there's no thunder or lightning,

and with a thunderstorm,

there's usually lots of thunder and lightning.

That's really the only difference.

Here in Ontario, Canada, there's really four basic ways

to describe the kind of rain that you are getting.

We usually say it's spitting.

That means that if you go outside,

the odd raindrop will hit you every once in a while.

If it gets a little harder,

we would probably say it's drizzling.

It's actually drizzling right now.

You can see a little bit of rain on my jacket, maybe.

It's not coming down super hard.

The next level would be to simply say it's raining.

It's a pretty basic description,

but when you say it's raining,

it's probably raining hard enough that you need an umbrella,

but it's not raining so hard

that you're worried about going outside.

And then the last way we would describe it

is we would say it's pouring.

When it's pouring outside,

the rain is coming down in buckets.

Rain is just falling out of the sky at a rapid rate,

and if you go outside, even with an umbrella,

it can sometimes be hard to stay dry.

So the four levels of rain in Ontario, Canada.

It's spitting, it's drizzling, it's raining,

and then it's pouring.

Of course, as you know by now with the English language,

we're never happy with just one way to say something,

so when it's pouring outside,

there's a few ways we could describe that.

We could say, "It's a real downpour out there."

A downpour is when it's pouring rain outside.

Another way to say that it's pouring in English.

You could say, "It's really coming down out there."

That's probably the most common one that I would use.

If it was pouring rain outside, I would probably say to Jen,

"Wow, it's really coming down out there,"

and if I was outside in it, I would say,

"It's really coming down out here."

The third phrase is the phrase it's raining cats and dogs.

Sorry, there's a mosquito flying around me.

This phrase is quaint and a little bit old fashioned.

I haven't actually heard anyone use this phrase recently,

but you might, if you watch an older movie or TV show,

hear someone describe a really hard rain

by saying, "It's raining cats and dogs out there,"

or, "Wow, it's really raining cats and dogs."

And then the last phrase that I might use,

I might say, "Wow, the sky has opened up,"

kind of a descriptive way to describe

that there were really beautiful clouds,

and it's like the sky opened up

and water just started falling down.

So four ways that you can describe rain in English.

You could say, you could use the word downpour.

You could say, "It's really coming down out there."

You could say, "It's raining cats and dogs,"

if you want to sound old and quaint,

or you can say, "The sky has opened up."

Sometimes we have a day where it rains

and then it stops raining and then it starts raining again,

and there's a couple of ways in English

that you can describe this.

You could say it's raining on and off.

You could say, "It's going to rain on and off today,"

but you can also say, "It's going to rain off and on."

You can switch the on and off and use them both ways,

and it basically means that it's gonna rain for a little bit

and then it's going to stop raining,

and then it's going to start again.

I think the official term for this,

if you look at the weather forecast,

is it would probably say scattered showers.

It would say, "There's going to be scattered showers today,"

and that simply means the same thing.

It means that it's going to rain,

and then it's going to stop,

and then it's going to rain again.

Sometimes it rains for most of the day,

and then eventually the rain stops,

and one phrase we use to describe that

is we say that the rain let up.

So we use the phrasal verb to let up

to describe the fact that the rain is stopping.

So you could say,

"I think the rain is going to let up later today,"

or, "I hope the rain lets up later today,

because I certainly hope it doesn't rain

when I have to play my football game outside."

One more phrase before I wrap this up.

I'm happy that, as I finish this lesson, I'm not soaked.

In English, when you say, "I'm soaked,"

it's something you might say

after you go outside in a rainstorm

and your clothes are all wet.

Thankfully, my jacket worked really well.

I have a little bit of rain on me, but I'm not soaked.

So anyways, thanks again for watching this English lesson

where I hope you learned a few more phrases and words

to be able to talk about a rainy day.

Remember, if this is your first time here,

don't forget to click that subscribe button

and give me a thumbs up if you enjoyed the lesson,

and if you have a little bit more time,

why don't you stick around and watch another English lesson?

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