How do I talk about the weather in English?
With "It's" plus an adjective — "It's sunny", "It's cold" — and, for rain or snow right now, with the -ing form: "It's raining". You ask with "What's the weather like?", and you talk about your body with "I'm cold".
- Describe the weather: It's + adjective — It's sunny, It's windy, It's cold.
- Rain or snow right now: It's raining, It's snowing.
- Your body: I'm cold — the world around you: It's cold.
A1 · Small Talk · 10 minWeather small talk, taught brick by brick.
A structured ten-brick lesson for A1 learners. Hear a short weather sentence in context, meet the basic shape "It's" plus an adjective from a tutor, then practise describing the weather, asking about it and replying in a friendly way in interactive drills before the closing quiz. The whole arc takes about ten minutes and nothing requires a signup.
- CEFR levelA1 · Beginner
- Time to completeAbout 10 minutes
- SkillsSpeaking, Listening, Vocabulary, Pronunciation
- Bricks10 blocks
01 / 07
What weather small talk does
Talking about the weather is one of the easiest ways to start a conversation in English. You don't need complicated grammar or a big vocabulary — a few short sentences are enough. If you are in the same place, you share the same weather: you can see it through the window, or you felt it on the way to the office. On a video call, you compare the weather in your two places instead. Either way, anyone can say something about it straight away. Why the weather counts as a safe topic, and which topics to leave out, is the job of the lesson safe-topics-small-talk (A2). This lesson does something different: it gives you the words and sentences themselves. You learn how to describe the weather ("It's sunny"), how to talk about rain happening right now ("It's raining"), how to ask about the weather ("What's the weather like?") and how to answer in a short, friendly way. On top of that come the temperature ("It's 20 degrees") and how your own body feels ("I'm cold"). Every one of these sentences is short, and every one works immediately — in the lift, at reception or at the start of a video call. By the end of this lesson you have a small toolkit you can use every day, even if your English is only just getting started.
02 / 07
The basic shape: It's + adjective
The basic shape is short: It's plus an adjective. It's sunny. It's cloudy. It's windy. It's cold. It's warm. It's hot. It's is the short form of it is, and in conversation you mostly hear the short form. The it doesn't point to anything in particular — it simply fills the subject slot, much like German es in "Es ist kalt". So you can carry the pattern straight across: "Es ist warm" becomes It's warm. Many weather adjectives are built from a noun plus -y: sun becomes sunny (with a double n), cloud becomes cloudy, wind becomes windy, rain becomes rainy. Small words in front make your description more exact: It's very hot. It's a bit cloudy. It's so cold today! And you can join two descriptions: It's sunny, but it's cold. It's windy and cloudy. To begin with, these six adjectives are enough — sunny, cloudy, windy, cold, warm, hot. They take you a long way in everyday life, and with today at the end, your sentence instantly sounds like small talk: It's warm today. Say the sentences aloud while you look out of the window — that links the word directly to the picture.
03 / 07
Rain and snow: right now or as a habit
Rain and snow make things a little more interesting. When it is raining right now — you look out of the window and see the drops — you say It's raining. When it is snowing right now, you say It's snowing. That is the -ing form, the present continuous, and it describes what is happening at this moment. German uses the same form for rain right now and for rain as a habit: "Es regnet" — which is why It rains can slip out when you point at the rain outside. For this moment, It's raining is the natural choice. The simple form It rains is not wrong, though — it just has a different job. It describes habits and general statements: It rains a lot in Hamburg. It doesn't snow much here. Both forms are correct; the only question is whether you are talking about now or about "usually". And there is a third way: the adjective rainy. It's rainy today is correct too, and it describes a wet day as a whole. To start with, remember this: if you are pointing at the rain outside the window, say It's raining. You will find more on the -ing form in the lesson present-continuous (A2).
04 / 07
Temperature and your body
For the temperature you use It's again, this time with a number: It's 20 degrees. It's only 5 degrees today. The plural -s matters: German "20 Grad" has no ending, but in English it is degrees — with an s. Below zero you can say, for example, It's minus five. For your body, though, the subject changes. When you feel cold yourself, you say I'm cold; when you feel warm, I'm warm; when you feel hot, I'm hot. The natural way to say German "Mir ist kalt" is I'm cold. Me is cold is ungrammatical; It is cold to me is grammatical but unusual for how your body feels. Here the subject is the person: I'm cold. Are you cold? She's hot. The two sentences I'm cold and It's cold are both correct; they simply say different things. It's cold describes the world around you: the weather outside or the room you are sitting in. I'm cold describes how your body feels. You can combine them, too: It's 5 degrees, and I'm cold. One more small trap hides in have: I have a cold means you are ill with a cold — an illness, not a temperature.
05 / 07
Asking and answering in a few words
The fixed question about the weather is What's the weather like? — roughly "Wie ist das Wetter?" in German. Notice the little like — it is part of the fixed question: What's the weather like in London? What's the weather like today? A second question that is just as correct is How's the weather? — here without like. The mix of the two, How is the weather like?, doesn't work, though. When someone asks about the weather or makes a weather comment, keep your answer short and friendly. If someone says It's a lovely day!, a simple Yes, lovely! is enough. If someone says It's so cold today!, try I know! It's so cold. That I know! signals agreement — here it doesn't mean "I already knew that", it means something like "True!". After that, give a small piece of information back: It's raining here, too. That keeps the conversation moving. You may also hear sentences like It's cold today, isn't it?. The isn't it? on the end is a friendly chunk that invites an answer — you can learn it as a fixed phrase and reply in the same way: Yes, it's so cold! How these little add-ons are built is something you will learn later in the lesson question-tags (B1).
06 / 07
Typical German-speaker traps
Four spots trip German speakers up again and again when they talk about the weather. First, "Was für ein schönes Wetter!": carried across word for word, it becomes What a lovely weather! — but English treats weather as an uncountable noun, so this exclamation takes no a: What lovely weather! As a full sentence, The weather is lovely works too. The a itself is not the problem: with a countable word like day it is correct — What a lovely day! The lesson countable-uncountable (A2) explains countable and uncountable nouns in more detail. Second, "Mir ist kalt": say I'm cold. Me is cold is ungrammatical; It is cold to me is unusual for this meaning. Third, "Es regnet" said about the rain outside the window: for this moment you say It's raining; It rains fits habits. Fourth, "20 Grad": English adds a plural -s — 20 degrees. On top of that comes a small pronunciation point. Weather starts with an English /w/ — lips rounded as for "oo", with no teeth touching the lip — and in the middle sits the voiced th /ð/. German has neither of these sounds in this form. For focused practice with these sounds, try the lessons v-w-sounds and th-sound (both A1).
07 / 07
Weather small talk at work
At work, weather small talk turns up in three typical places. Before a meeting, while everyone arrives: It's so windy today! — I know! It's so cold, too. At reception, when a guest arrives: Hello, welcome! Is it still raining? — Yes, it's raining a lot. And on a video call with a colleague in another city, London for example: How's the weather in London? — It's cloudy, but it's warm. And in Berlin? — It's sunny and 20 degrees! You can see that each of these exchanges has just two or three short turns. That is all it takes. What matters is that you answer and give something back. A weather comment followed by nothing but Yes is only half a rally. With And in Berlin? or What's the weather like there? you pass the ball back, and a small conversation has started. After a sentence or two you can move on to the real topic quite naturally: OK, let's start. Practise these little dialogues aloud, ideally with today's real weather. Look out of the window in the morning and say one sentence to yourself: It's cloudy today. Or: It's raining, and I'm cold. Step by step the forms become automatic — and in your next meeting they will come out on their own.