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. |
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