#229: 15 Useful Idioms: Weather Idioms to Use in Daily Conversation

This week’s podcast is all about idioms! Part of being fluent in the language is being able to speak with idiomatic expressions when they’re appropriate. For example, when someone asks you “How are you?”, don’t always fall back to the old “I’m fine, and you?” Think of ways you can add variety to your language. For example, you could say “as right as rain”. Today, Andrea and Olli teach you weather related idioms, and in doing so they touch on a cultural aspect that has to do with British people and the weather. Can you guess what it is? 

Words You’ll Learn:

  • Breezy
  • Giggle
  • Get burnt/burned
  • To be caught up
  • Victorian period
  • Pour (pouring)
  • Hail
  • Spacey
  • Rumor(AmE) / Rumour(BrE)
  • Grounded
  • Behave recklessly
  • MC

Quick Definitions:

  • Heat wave: a period of unusually hot weather, especially one that continues for a long time.
  • Inland: Ollie talks about cities that are inland, like London. This means it’s not near the coast.
  • “Wind braces us up”: this is a poetic use of language. Brace here means that wind pushes against your body. 
  • Make something up: to invent an excuse or a story. Often in an attempt to deceive someone. 
  • “Snow is exhilarating: making you feel happy, excited, and full of energy.
  • Overstack: Ollie says that his supermarket bags are overstacked. This means they’re too full.
  • Trauma: extreme emotional shock and pain caused by an upsetting experience.
  • Shed: a small building, often made of wood, used especially for storing things. Garage in American English. 
  • Go off on a tangent: to start talking about something that is only slightly or indirectly related to the original subject.
  • A tabloid newspaper: a popular newspaper that normally writes about crime stories, celebrity gossip, and television.
  • Prime example: a very good example.

Kickass Quote

“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.” – John Ruskin 

“There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing” – Andrea’s friend

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  • Andrew says:

    Actually, in my native country we use almost the same phrase (I mean, an idiom “on cloud nine”), but we say in seventh heaven what means exactly the same (to be extremely happy). Moreover, we also use an expression to save up for a “black” day, which obviously tightly related to the expression that you’ve mentioned in a podcast (to save up money for a rainy day).
    And yea, I guess, no one likes wind, so I’m not an exception as well)
    The only one thing that I can’t agree with you is that lovely phrase like “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing”, which I’ve heard quite a few times and I always think like “What a bullshit? There is such thing as bad weather, definitely. Sometimes it absolutely terrifying and it doesn’t matter how you are prepared and what kind of fancy clothes you wear and so on and so forth”. Well, of course I understand that it’s just about positive attitude and all that stuff, but you know, I still think that way, even though I am an optimistic person)

  • Pat says:

    Hi guys, I love to listen to your podcast! You made my day!!!
    Stay safe.

    • Agnieszka Tkacz says:

      We’re happy to hear that!

  • Lucy M says:

    I love your podcast, guyes. It’s been helping me for four months now, but with combination with your channells, it’s even more amazing. I can recognize a huge improvement. I feel more confident as well and even in my native language (and I’m a shy person). Your channel
    Learn English With TV Series is so great and really enjoyable, what a marvelous idea to combine learning English with a lot of fun. I love your second channel too, Real life English, I love your live lessons, it’s so pleasure, that anyone can participate. At last, but not least, your podcast, amazing work guyes. I listen to it every week and I’m always so excited for new episodes, you guyes are never boring and I can listen to your older podcasts again and again. And also your the newest thing now- your app, I love listening to the podcast and reading the text, if don’t catch some new word.

    • Agnieszka Tkacz says:

      Thank you Lucy for your awesome support!

  • Alix says:

    Hello guys! Thanks a bunch for this mind-blowing podcast! 🙂
    You mentioned the idiom “it’s raining cats and dogs” and asked us to write in the comments the equivalent in our mother tong. So in French we can say “il pleut des cordes” to describe a heavy rain. It literally means that it is raining ropes..! It is widely used, at least in the north of France, where I live 🙂
    Thanks again for all the great work you do and everything you teach us! Aww yeah 😉

  • Aitor says:

    Hi Guys! Here in Spain we say “Llueve a cántaros”, referring to the situation when it’s raining cats and dogs!

    • Agnieszka Tkacz says:

      Good to know!

  • Mel says:

    Hi! Loved this episode! Im from Brazil, its really nice to know that ollie is around here somewhere hahahaha here we have an idiom that is quite similar to the “raining cats and dogs” one, it is “its raining penknives” or, in portuguese, “está chovendo canivetes”. It means that its raining a lot! You can use this expression when something unexpected happens, like, for example, when your brother that never does the dishes suddenly starts cleaning the house. You could say “oh gosh its gonna rain penknives” hahaha its really funny

    • Agnieszka Tkacz says:

      Haha! I will warn Ollie about this idiom 🙂 Thank you for sharing!

  • Ramy says:

    I like English

  • Giovanna says:

    Hi everybody,
    The Italian for “It’s raining cats and dogs” is “Piove a catinelle”, where catinelle means a little basin, used especially in the past to wash your face or hands.
    P.S. I love you guys, nobody like you.

  • Otto says:

    In my country, we use instead of “on cloud nine” “on cloud seven” and we use mainly for “to fell in love” with somebody. Synonyms are:
    in love (main form) – (fully) inflamed (for someone) – on fire (for) – madly in love – enraptured – on fire (fig.) – on fire (fig.) – in love – love sick – love crazy – love drunk – hopelessly in love – terribly in love – madly in love – crazy (for) – hit by Cupid’s arrow (fig.) – infatuated (geh.) – on cloud nine (colloquial) – up to both ears in love

    • Justin says:

      Thanks for all the tips Otto! What country do you live in?