Starting A Conversation In English: Weather Idioms

By RealLife Team | September 4, 2013

What is the most common subject people talk about when they have nothing to talk about?

The weather!

That’s right, for some reason when people want to start a conversation with a random stranger, the weather is generally such a natural topic to discuss. WHY IS THAT?

Talking about the weather is such a great conversation starter because it is something that affects everyone around you. The weather can determine our mood (the way we feel), it can cause us to call off (cancel) appointments and events, and best of all for language learners, it can be a great ice-breaker (conversation starter).

The weather is not only a common subject of conversation in English, but we also have many popular expressions that involve it. These expressions are often used in everyday English and can really help you sound more natural and fluent.

This infographic was created by our friends from Kaplan International, where you can find many more interesting illustrations like this one, and get a lot of insightful information and great tips about the English language through their blog.

(See below for some typical conversation starters involving the weather)

Weather Conversation Starters

Beautiful day, isn’t it?
How about this weather?
Can you believe all of this rain we’ve been having?
It looks like it’s going to rain cats and dogs.
Wouldn’t you love to be at the beach right now?
I heard it’s going to be a rainy weekend.
We couldn’t ask for a nicer day, could we?
Don’t you just love this warm/cool weather?

If you have any other interesting conversation starters, please share them with us by posting it in the comments below. Also, take a look at past RLE posts with Kaplan illustrations to familiarize yourself with some other common English idioms.

Posted in fun english