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Weather & seasons 100
100
phrases
Today's weather
10
今天天气怎么样 is the question, and the answers divide the sky more finely than English does: 晴天 clear, 多云 cloudy, 阴 overcast. Note 闷 - muggy, close, airless - which has no single English word and which you will need in a Chinese summer more than any of the others.
The forecast
10
转 means "turn into" and is how Chinese describes changing weather: 明天会转晴, tomorrow will turn clear. Temperatures are given in Celsius and stated as 最高 and 最低, high and low. 要带伞吗 - should I take an umbrella - is the practical question every forecast is really answering.
When it's hot
10
热死了 - "hot to death" - is the standard exaggeration and one you should use, because the neutral 很热 sounds oddly restrained when everyone around you is dying. 阴凉处 is a shaded spot, and note the reading: 处 here is chù, a place, not chǔ. 多喝水 returns, as it always does.
When it's cold
10
零下五度 - five below zero - puts 零下 in front, literally "below zero", and the number follows. 我怕冷 - "I fear cold" - is how Chinese says you feel the cold badly; the same frame gives 我怕辣 for spice. 多穿点衣服 is what someone older will say to you regardless of the actual temperature.
Rain and snow
10
下 does the work for anything falling from the sky: 下雨, 下雪. 雨下得很大 uses 得 to attach the manner to the verb - rain falls, and how it falls is 很大, heavily. 等雨小一点 - wait for the rain to ease - is the standard Chinese response to a downpour, which is to wait rather than to run.
Wind and rough weather
10
台风 is typhoon, and the season runs roughly July to September along the southern and eastern coasts, where 航班取消了 becomes a routine sentence. 沙尘 is dust from the north - a spring phenomenon in Beijing that has no equivalent in most learners' experience and is worth recognising in a forecast.
The seasons
10
换季 - "changing season" - is used as a verb and covers everything from swapping your wardrobe to catching a cold because you did not. 梅雨 is the plum rain, the humid weeks of early summer in the Yangtze region, named after the fruit that ripens in it - the same word Japanese borrowed as tsuyu.
The sky and the season
10
This set is where Chinese small talk becomes almost literary. 树叶红了 - the leaves have turned red - uses 了 to mark the change of state, which is the same 了 you meet everywhere and here does something quietly beautiful. 月亮真圆 praises a full moon, a remark with centuries of poetry behind it.
Dressing for it
10
早晚温差大 - "the morning and evening difference is large" - is a real feature of the Chinese climate and the reason people carry a layer they are not wearing. 记得防晒 - remember sun protection - and 加件衣服 - add a layer - are both said as instructions, which is how care is expressed here.
Weather small talk
10
Weather is the safe topic in Chinese as everywhere, and 天气真好啊 with its trailing 啊 is the opening move. 该收衣服了 - time to bring the washing in - is a domestic remark that will place you instantly as someone who lives here rather than visits. 天气影响心情 is the sentiment everyone agrees with.
Related categories
Phone & messaging 100
Accommodation 100
Work & office 100
School & study 100
Home & daily life 100
Body & health 100
Hobbies & leisure 100
Internet & phone 100
中文