anna
How an English speaker...talks about the weather?

A weather-talk maybe is not an intrinsically interesting topic for everybody, but it's a good way to introduce new vocabulary and understand a different culture.

While you are used to measure the Celsius temperature and don't have an exact clue whether 18ºF is freezing, lukewarm or boiling hot (and vice versa, of course), it is also possible that a remark such as 'nice weather' elicits an embarrassing response (particularly if it's raining cats and dogs).

So, It makes me ask for a question:

Which words do you usually use to talk about the weather? Do you consider the topic a nice icebreaker or a hallowed topic to seriously take into consideration (as well as the daily weather predictions)?

Apr 17, 2017 10:29 AM
Comments · 7
2

Where I live (Canada), talking about the weather is usually the next thing out of your mouth after saying 'Hi'. Everybody does it and it's how we 'break the ice' here. A typical conversation with a stranger:

A: Hi, nice day eh?      [Sure sign of speaking with a Canadian when 'eh' is appended to a spoken sentence :) ]

B: Ya, it's beautiful out today. Can you believe the rain we had last week?

A: Tell me about it. I thought my basement was going to flood. At least the forecast is for sun for the next two weeks.

B. I know, thank God! Have a nice afternoon!

A You too!

April 17, 2017
1

Weather is a nice, very normal thing to talk about! Great icebreaker; everyone knows what to say. For example, if I wanted to talk to my roommate right now about the weather:

Me: Josh, are you doing archery today? It's really cloudy. 

Josh: No, it's too cold. And I think it's supposed to rain today. 

Me: I kind of like the fog, though. I might go out for a run later. But yeah, I could see how the weather isn't great for archery.

Josh: What's the weather supposed to be on Saturday?

Me: I think it'll stop raining by then. It's gonna be sunny and probably a lot warmer.

Josh: Good, we have a competition that day. I hate shooting in the rain!

 

Also, YES, Canadians say "eh" all the time! My sister's boyfriend is Canadian and it's funny x) Love from America <3

April 17, 2017
Thanks for your comments, they are very useful :)
April 18, 2017
@Linda: Ah shucks, thanks for the love. We love y'all too! :P
April 17, 2017
@anna: Yes, it's quite common for Canadians to use the word 'eh' in spoken language. Americans love to bug us about it. Just like we love to bug them about various pronunciations of words :)  Basically 'eh' is just used to emphasize that you are asking a question and/or a short cut for saying "isn't it?" or "huh?" or "hey?" or "ok?".  It's sloppy, it's colloquial, and it's idiomatic, but we do it anyways :) So what can you do eh? :D
April 17, 2017
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