Weather & Seasons
Weather & Seasons — 20 high-frequency words, with pronunciation, collocations, tricky words and four interactive exercises.
📌 Lesson contents
🎯 Lesson goal
Talking about the weather is small talk number one in Britain 🌦️. You’ll learn twenty words to describe it and, above all, the right structure: in English we don’t say “there is sun” but it’s sunny. The subject it is compulsory. 🚀
🗂️ Word Bank
Tap 🔊 to hear the British pronunciation. The IPA transcription is under each word.
📖 Words in context
Four seasons in one day · tap a highlighted word to hear it.
"What's the weather like?" is the first question every British person asks. And with good reason: here you can experience every season in a single afternoon.
This morning it was sunny, so I left without an umbrella. By eleven the sky was cloudy, and at lunchtime a heavy shower soaked me completely. The forecast had promised a mild day!
Then came the storm: first thunder, then lightning over the hills, and a wind so strong that it was too windy to walk. Tonight the temperature will drop and it might even snow — although by tomorrow it will all melt. Last July we had a heatwave and it was boiling; now it's almost freezing. Nobody here trusts the sky.
🔗 Collocations & chunks
Words are learnt in pairs, not alone: memorise the whole chunk.
| Chunk / collocation | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| It's pouring with rain. | raining very hard | Take a coat — it's pouring with rain. |
| a heavy shower | a lot of rain in a short time | We got caught in a heavy shower. |
| break out in a storm | a storm suddenly starts | The sky broke out in a storm. |
| bright and sunny | no clouds, lots of sun | It's bright and sunny today. |
| the temperature drops | it gets colder | The temperature drops at night. |
| clear up | the weather gets better | It should clear up this afternoon. |
⚠️ Tricky words
| English word | Real meaning ✅ | Watch out ❌ |
|---|---|---|
| mist | a thin, light fog | Not the same as mixed (= made of different things) |
| estate | a large area of land with a big house | Not a season: the hot season is summer |
| hot | the temperature is high | We say it's hot, never “there is hot” |
| season | one of the four parts of the year | Not a “session”: a lesson or meeting is a session |
🎚️ Register: when to use them
| Expression | Register | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Lovely day, isn't it? | British small talk | the standard way to start talking to a stranger |
| It's chucking it down! | very informal (UK) | only with friends: it means it’s raining very hard |
| It's raining heavily. | neutral | suitable everywhere, even at school |
| Heavy rainfall is expected. | formal | forecasts, newspapers, written texts |
🚫 Common mistakes to avoid
| Mistake ❌ | Correct ✅ |
|---|---|
| There is sun today. | It's sunny today. |
| It does cold. | It's cold. |
| Yesterday was rain. | Yesterday it rained. |
| The time is beautiful today. | The weather is beautiful today. |
🎮 Vocabulary gym
Four ways to train the same 20 words. Your progress is saved on this device.
Tap the card to flip it.
Tap an English word, then its meaning. Eight pairs per round.
Complete the ten sentences with the right word. The 💡 hint helps you.
- What's the like today?💡 what it’s like outside: sun, rain, wind
- The says rain.💡 the report that says what tomorrow will be like
- It's warm and today.💡 warm, with lots of sun
- It was grey and all morning.💡 grey, with lots of clouds
- November is always here.💡 with a lot of rain
- There was a heavy at lunchtime.💡 a short burst of rain
- A is coming from the west.💡 wind, rain, thunder, lightning
- The dog is afraid of .💡 the loud noise in a storm
- We saw over the hills.💡 the bright flash in the sky
- The in the Po valley is famous.💡 thick cloud near the ground