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  • (upbeat music)

  • - Hello, everyone, and welcome back to English With Lucy.

  • Today I'm going to talk to you about how to describe

  • the weather in English.

  • We're going to start off quite basic

  • and move up to more advanced vocabulary.

  • I'm going to guide you through seasonal weather,

  • hot weather, cold weather, wet weather, windy weather,

  • and I'm going to give you verbs, nouns, adjectives,

  • and idiomatic expressions.

  • Idioms.

  • We're also going to do a little bit of basic grammar

  • at the beginning.

  • But very, very easy.

  • Don't worry.

  • Before we get started,

  • I would just like to make a recommendation.

  • This video is going to improve your vocabulary

  • and your speaking skills,

  • and it will also improve your listening skills.

  • I know a lot of you do want to improve your listening skills

  • so this recommendation is really for you.

  • In my experience teaching students,

  • listening to audiobooks is one of the best ways

  • to improve your accent, your understanding,

  • and your speaking.

  • Audible are offering a 30-day free trail,

  • that's one free audiobook,

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  • If you can listen to a book and read it at the same time,

  • you can hear how the words are pronounced

  • and see how the spelling correlates with the pronunciation.

  • I've made some recommendations for audiobooks down

  • in the description box as well.

  • So do consider signing up and claiming your free audiobook.

  • Right.

  • Let's get on with the lesson.

  • You may know that British people are famous

  • for always talking about the weather,

  • and this is because we are lucky enough

  • to have four strong seasons.

  • Winter, which is really cold.

  • Spring, which is sunny and wet at the same time.

  • Summer, which is normally hot and sunny.

  • And autumn, which is colder and with lots of wind,

  • and when all the trees lose their leaves.

  • I'm going to talk to you today

  • about different weather vocabulary that you can find

  • in each of the four seasons.

  • But first, let's discuss how to talk about the weather

  • from a grammar point of view.

  • This grammar is fairly basic.

  • So if you're looking for advanced vocabulary,

  • click to the time shown onscreen.

  • If you want to use an adjective, for example, warm,

  • you could say, "The weather is warm."

  • The weather is adjective.

  • You could also say, "It is warm."

  • It is adjective.

  • But it only really makes sense if the adjective

  • is related to the weather.

  • If you say, "It is good," I might wonder, well, what's good?

  • But if you say, "It is warm,"

  • I know that you're talking about the weather.

  • You can also say, "It's a warm day."

  • It's a adjective day.

  • But what if you want to use a verb, for example, rain,

  • the verb, to rain?

  • You would say, "It is raining."

  • It is verb plus I-N-G.

  • That's if you want to talk about the weather right now.

  • If you want to talk about yesterday or the past,

  • you would say, "Yesterday, it rained."

  • Yesterday, it verb plus E-D.

  • Apart from the irregular verbs,

  • which have their own conjugation.

  • If you want to talk about tomorrow or the future,

  • you can say, "It will rain tomorrow."

  • It will verb tomorrow.

  • Or, "It's going to rain tomorrow."

  • It's going to verb tomorrow.

  • If you want to talk about a noun, you would say,

  • "there is," "there was," or "there will be."

  • That's present, past, future, plus the noun.

  • There is a storm.

  • There was a storm.

  • There will be a storm.

  • Right.

  • So now that's out of the way, first let's talk about winter,

  • the month that I am in now in England.

  • I'm going to start out with adjectives,

  • and I warn you, there are a lot of adjectives

  • associated with winter.

  • You can say "cold."

  • Cold.

  • Bitter, bitter.

  • That's very, very cold.

  • It's just a step further than cold.

  • You could even put them together

  • and say, "It's bitterly cold."

  • It's bitterly cold.

  • You can say "It's chilly," which is slightly cold,

  • or chilling.

  • That's a little bit more.

  • Crisp.

  • Crisp normally means it's cold and dry,

  • or maybe it's icy.

  • Icy.

  • You can say, "It's freezing," or "It's frosty."

  • You can also say, "It is severe," or "It is wintry."

  • That means it's a very wintry day.

  • It feels like winter and it is winter.

  • If it's winter and the weather conditions are very bad,

  • the skies are grey, you can say, "It's gloomy,"

  • or "It's bleak."

  • Or if there's a lot of very aggressive weather,

  • you can say, "It's harsh."

  • We often talk about a harsh winter.

  • Now let's talk about some verbs.

  • You can say "to snow,"

  • which is obviously white, fluffy stuff falling from the sky.

  • To sleet.

  • Sleet is partly frozen rain.

  • So it's like very wet snow or very, very cold,

  • almost frozen rain.

  • It's normally very unpleasant.

  • If it's sleeting, I go inside.

  • You can also say "to hail."

  • If it's hailing, it means that little hailstones,

  • little, tiny balls of ice, well, normally tiny,

  • but there are big ones, are falling from the sky.

  • It's completely frozen rain.

  • You can also say "to freeze," or "to freeze over."

  • And to freeze over means covered with a layer of ice.

  • So I might say, "My pond has frozen over."

  • My pond is covered with ice.

  • Now some nouns you might use to describe winter.

  • So we've got sleet, hail, snow, frost,

  • as I've mentioned before.

  • You also have blizzard, which is a windy snowstorm.

  • And for some idioms, you can have a cold snap,

  • which is a short period of cold weather,

  • or you can be frozen to death, or frozen to the bone,

  • which means you are completely frozen through.

  • Right.

  • Let's talk about spring.

  • Spring is known for being sunny and rainy.

  • It's warm and it's wet,

  • and it's when all of the plants start to grow.

  • Adjectives you can use are cool.

  • It means it's not cold.

  • It's not unpleasant.

  • Nor is it warm.

  • Mild is the same thing.

  • Mild.

  • Fresh, as well.

  • It's a very fresh day.

  • You can say, "It's bright."

  • The sun is out.

  • You can say "breezy," which means a light wind.

  • It's normally very pleasant and welcomed.

  • When you're talking about clouds, you can say "cloudy,"

  • or slightly more advanced, is overcast,

  • where there is some sunlight,

  • but there are also some clouds,

  • meaning that you don't have a completely sunny day.

  • It's overcast.

  • You hear the meteorologists on weather stations

  • talking about an overcast day quite a lot.

  • One that's not so positive is muggy.

  • And this is if the air is very, very humid.

  • It's can be cold or hot,

  • and you can have a muggy summer's day as well,

  • but it means there's high humidity in the air.

  • Another word you can say is simply "wet."

  • It's a wet day.

  • It's been raining a lot.

  • Time for some verbs.

  • Well, talking about rain, you can say "to drizzle."

  • It's drizzling.

  • This means it's a constant but gentle flow of rain.

  • To shower, pretty much the same.

  • That means it's more sporadic or occasional.

  • Meteorologists normally say you can expect showers

  • throughout the day, which means occasional patches of rain.

  • You can say "to pour," which is where it rains

  • really, really heavily.

  • Moving on to the nouns, you've got rain,

  • which is uncountable.

  • You've got a shower, which is a light patch of rain.

  • You can also have a downpour,

  • which is a really heavy patch of rain, or even a flood,

  • where the ground becomes inundated

  • and can't absorb any more water.

  • Idioms.

  • You can say "to chuck it down,"

  • which means a heavy downpour.

  • You can say, "It's raining cats and dogs,"

  • although in reality we don't actually use that idiom

  • that much, but it seems to be the first idiom

  • that anyone ever learns.

  • You can also say "to bucket down."

  • If it's bucketing down with rain,

  • it's raining really hard.

  • And you can also be soaked through.

  • This is where it's rained on you

  • and you are really, really wet.

  • Oh my God.

  • I'm soaked through.

  • Right.

  • Let's talk about summer and adjectives that could be used

  • to describe summer weather.

  • Firstly, of course, we have hot.

  • Other words that could be described hot weather

  • are scorching, sweltering, boiling, sunny.

  • You could also say "dry," if there's not been any rain

  • and there's no humidity.

  • You can say, "It's a clear day,"

  • if there are no clouds in the sky.

  • Or you could say, "It's very humid,"

  • if the air is very wet.

  • You can also say, "It's blistering."

  • A blistering sun.

  • Verbs.

  • You can say "to shine."

  • The sun is shining.

  • You can also say, "The sun is burning,"

  • if it's especially hot.

  • And you can also say "to scorch,"

  • just like the adjective.

  • Nouns.

  • The only extras really to add are sunshine,

  • which we like to say a lot and to talk about the heat.

  • Now there are a couple of idioms

  • relating to our reactions to the sun.

  • You can say "to catch some rays,"

  • which means to absorb some of the sunshine

  • and maybe get a tan.

  • You can also say "to go brown,"

  • which again refers to tanning.

  • You can also soak up the sun,

  • which means the same thing again.

  • And when talking about sweating,

  • you can sweat like a pig.

  • Oh my God, I'm sweating like a pig,

  • which means I'm sweating a lot.

  • Finally, let's talk about autumn,

  • or as they say in America, fall.

  • In British English, we say "autumn,"

  • but we do understand what fall means

  • because we see it on the TV and the movies.

  • But in America, they say "fall."

  • Some adjectives relating to autumn.

  • My favourite and the most descriptive is autumnal.

  • Autumnal.

  • It's a very autumnal day.

  • It tends to be windier in autumn.

  • So you can say "windy."

  • Another lovely one is blustery.

  • It's a blustery day.

  • And it can also be misty or foggy,

  • which is when there is cold moisture in the air,

  • normally in the mornings.

  • Some verbs specifically relating to wind.

  • It can be howling with wind, to howl.

  • Or to blow, as well.

  • The wind is blowing.

  • Nouns.

  • A gale, a strong wind.

  • A hurricane, a very, very strong wind.

  • A tornado.

  • That's when wind goes around in a vortex.

  • And you've also got mist and fog, which I mentioned before,

  • which is cold moisture in the air.

  • Right.

  • That's it for today's lesson.

  • Your homework is to write in the comments

  • about the weather from where you are today.

  • And please mention where you are

  • because I love seeing where you come from.

  • Don't forget to click on the link in the description

  • to claim your free 30-day trial with Audible.

  • That's one free audiobook.

  • And don't forget to check out all of my social media.

  • I've got my Facebook, I've got my Instagram,

  • and I've got my Twitter.

  • And I shall see you soon for another lesson.

  • Muah.

  • (upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

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