Learn how to talk about the weather
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: The Weather in England is Something You Can Always Talk About. David Here. |
| Kellie: Hello. I'm Kellie. |
| David: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to discuss the weather. The conversation takes place at the university. |
| Kellie: The speakers are friends. |
| David: So they’ll use informal English. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Phil: Hey, Katrina! Do you have any snow boots? |
| Katrina: No, I don't. Will it snow? |
| Phil: The weather forecast said that it will probably snow heavily later. |
| Katrina: Really? It's raining now but it's still warm. |
| Phil: Yeah, but it's supposed to be freezing cold tonight. |
| Katrina: I hope it doesn't snow until after I get home. |
| David: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Phil: Hey, Katrina! Do you have any snow boots? |
| Katrina: No, I don't. Will it snow? |
| Phil: The weather forecast said that it will probably snow heavily later. |
| Katrina: Really? It's raining now but it's still warm. |
| Phil: Yeah, but it's supposed to be freezing cold tonight. |
| Katrina: I hope it doesn't snow until after I get home. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: Do you need snow boots in the UK? |
| Kellie: Maybe in some parts of Scotland you do. England and Wales do get snow too, but it’s usually just a couple of days per year and isn’t too deep. |
| David: The UK has very unsettled weather though. |
| Kellie: Yeah, you can often get fog, sun, cloud, and rain all within a few hours. It changes so frequently! |
| David: So, I guess a good piece of advice for any of our listeners is that if you go to the UK, take an umbrella! |
| Kellie: Definitely! Weather is a great way to start a conversation with someone and is a safe topic to fall back on. British people love to talk about the weather, mainly to complain! |
| David: There are some interesting idioms about weather, aren’t there? |
| Kellie: Yeah! On days when it rains heavily, people might say that “it’s raining cats or dogs” or that “the heavens have opened”. |
| David: I like the cats and dogs one. |
| Kellie: Me too! There are also many idioms using weather-related words, such as a “storm in a teacup” for a situation that may appear serious, but isn’t really. |
| David: I like “face like thunder” for people who are angry. People say that about me. |
| Kellie: Remind me not to make you angry then! |
| David: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| David: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Kellie: heavily [natural native speed] |
| David: in large amounts, thickly |
| Kellie: heavily[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: heavily [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: warm [natural native speed] |
| David: something that has or gives a moderate amount of heat |
| Kellie: warm[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: warm [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: snow [natural native speed] |
| David: frozen water vapour that falls from the sky |
| Kellie: snow[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: snow [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: forecast [natural native speed] |
| David: a prediction of future events |
| Kellie: forecast[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: forecast [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: probably [natural native speed] |
| David: without much doubt, likely to happen |
| Kellie: probably[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: probably [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: may [natural native speed] |
| David: expressing probability or permission |
| Kellie: may[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: may [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: suppose [natural native speed] |
| David: guess, assume that something is the case |
| Kellie: suppose[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: suppose [natural native speed] |
| David: And last.. |
| Kellie: freezing [natural native speed] |
| David: extremely cold |
| Kellie: freezing[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: freezing [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| David: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Kellie: probably |
| David: meaning "without much doubt; likely to happen" |
| David: You hear this word a lot. |
| Kellie: Yeah, it’s a useful word. It means that something is likely to happen, but it’s not quite 100%. |
| David: So, it gives you that little bit of room to be wrong. |
| Kellie: Exactly! You can leave a little doubt so if something doesn’t happen, it doesn’t seem so bad. |
| David: If I was asked to a party but wasn’t 100% sure about going, I could answer “probably”. |
| Kellie: Yeah, then it gives you room to cancel later. |
| David: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Kellie: Sure. For example, you can say.. “I can probably get there on time.” |
| David: ..which means "I think I can get there on time, but something might happen along the way to make me late.” Okay, what's the next word? |
| Kellie: “me too!” |
| David: meaning "I agree! Same for me!" |
| David: We know that “me” is a pronoun meant to refer to yourself, and that “too” can be used to mean “also.” |
| Kellie: So the two together make a really common phrase that we can use to agree with anything that is said. |
| David: I want pizza! |
| Kellie: “Me too!” See? That’s so much quicker than saying “I also want pizza”, which is what it means. |
| David: It’s a good phrase to use in conversations, as it is friendly and enthusiastic. |
| Kellie: You rarely see it in writing though, unless it is a written conversation! |
| David: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Kellie: Sure. For example, you can say.. "I'm tired." "Me too." |
| David: .. which means "I am also tired." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: In this lesson, you'll learn how to discuss the weather. |
| David: We said earlier that people love to speak about the weather, so let’s do it! |
| Kellie: You sound eager! The easiest way to speak about the weather is with weather adjectives. This is easy, because they use the common weather nouns. |
| David: What are weather nouns? |
| Kellie: They’re the basic words like “rain,” “sun,” “snow…” Things like that. |
| David: And weather adjectives? |
| Kellie: They’re the “y” words. “Rainy,” “sunny,” “snowy…” We can use them to make sentences that sound a little more fluent than the sentences made with the nouns. |
| David: Okay. I’ll ask you a question and you answer with a weather adjective. “How’s the weather today?” |
| Kellie: Well, we’re in a studio so it’s kinda hard to tell… But it was sunny this morning and I believe it will be rainy this afternoon. |
| David: Okay, that sounds good. But, tell me more about this rain. Can I do without an umbrella, or it will be flooding the streets? |
| Kellie: Ah, I need to use an adverb to answer that question. It will rain lightly, so you’ll be okay without an umbrella. |
| David: If it was to rain heavily, maybe I’d need a boat. |
| Kellie: Maybe! We can put adverbs such as “lightly,” “heavily,” “strongly” or “weakly” with the weather words to describe it further. |
| David: Is that all for describing weather? |
| Kellie: There is one more way using the present continuous tense. These are sentences that have a be verb followed by an “-ing” verb. |
| David: “I am studying…” sentences like that? |
| Kellie: That’s it! You used the “am” version of be and followed it by studying. Yeah, that’s perfect. |
| David: Let’s try one more. You are sleeping now. |
| Kellie: I wish I was sleeping now! But yeah, that’s right. |
| David: How can this help with the weather? |
| Kellie: Because there are also “-ing” verb versions of a lot of weather words. “Raining” and “snowing” are two easy ones. |
| David: How do we use that with a “be” verb? |
| Kellie: Like Katrina did in the conversation when she said “it’s raining now.” |
| David: It was snowing yesterday. |
| Kellie: The sun is shining! |
| David: Well, if the sun is shining, maybe it’s time to finish the lesson and go outside and enjoy it! |
Outro |
| David: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Kellie: Bye. |
5 Comments
HideHow is the weather today in your hometown?
Hello Daniel,
@Nilan,
@João,
Thank you for leaving the comment!
Looking forward to seeing you often here.
Sincerely,
Cristiane
Team EnglishClass101.com
it is summer in my city 😭, very hot .
We are having great weather these days because it’s summer time in UK. We had freezing weather past few months so we need to enjoy lot in this weather.
Now is fall in my hometown, it's cold.😮