Learn how to discuss the weather
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| Hi! 大家好，我是李殷如。 |
| (Dà jiā hǎo, wǒ shì Lǐ Yīnrú.) |
| “Hi, everyone! I'm Yinru Li.” |
| Welcome to Chinese Whiteboard Lessons! |
| Do you use small talk to start your conversations? And have you ever talked about weather in your small talk? |
| In this lesson, we’ll take a look at how to make small talk about weather in Chinese. |
| First, we’re gonna hear a dialogue. So, two neighbors meet in the elevator and here is how they start their conversation. Let’s take a listen. |
| 今天好热。 (Jīntiān hǎo rè.) |
| 是啊，太热了。 (Shì a, tài rè le.) |
| Okay, let’s listen to it one more time, a bit slower. |
| 今天好热。 (Jīntiān hǎo rè.) |
| 是啊，太热了。 (Shì a, tài rè le.) |
| All right. Now, this is our dialogue you just heard. |
| So, the first sentence: |
| 今天好热。 (Jīntiān hǎo rè.) |
| 今天好热 (Jīntiān hǎo rè) means “Today is so hot.” |
| 今天好热。 (Jīntiān hǎo rè.) |
| So, this means “Today is so hot.” |
| And the response starts with 是啊 (shì a). |
| 是啊 (Shì a) is a very colloquial and empathic way to agree with someone, which means, yeah, or yes it is, in English. |
| 是啊 (shì a) |
| And the second part of the response, 太热了 (tài rè le) means “too hot.” |
| 太热了 (tài rè le) |
| So, 是啊，太热了 (shì a, tài rè le) means “Yeah.” So, “too hot.” |
| Okay. |
| 今天好热。 (Jīntiān hǎo rè.) “Today is so hot.” |
| 是啊，太热了。 (Shì a, tài rè le.) “Yeah. Too hot.” |
| Now, let’s say today is very cold, so you can say: |
| 今天好冷。 (Jīntiān hǎo lěng.) |
| 今天好冷。 (Jīntiān hǎo lěng.) “Today is so cold.” |
| Now, let’s say today is pretty warm and you can say: |
| 今天好暖和。 (Jīntiān hǎo nuǎnhuo.) |
| 今天好暖和。 (Jīntiān hǎo nuǎnhuo.) “Today is so warm.” |
| So, 今天好热. (Jīntiān hǎo rè.) |
| 今天好冷。 (Jīntiān hǎo lěng.) |
| 今天好暖和。 (Jīntiān hǎo nuǎnhuo.) |
| Are you starting to see a pattern here? |
| So, the pattern we can use to talk about the weather today, in particular, the comfort level, the temperature of today’s weather is: |
| 今天好 (Jīntiān hǎo) and then you put a weather-related adjective here or a comfort-level adjective, which means “Today is so (something).” Okay. |
| So, 今天 (jīntiān) means “today” and 好 (hǎo), in this sentence, in this case, 好 (hǎo) is an adverb that’s used to describe a degree, a pretty high degree, which means “so (something)” and it’s used very commonly in colloquial, in everyday language. |
| 好 (Hǎo) 怎样怎样 (zěnyàng zěnyàng). |
| 今天好 (Jīntiān hǎo) and then your adjective. |
| Now, I want you to pay attention to this sentence structure of the sentence, this pattern, okay? 今天 (Jīntiān) is a noun, a subject. And then 好 (hǎo) is an adverb, right? And then it’s an adjective. So, unlike English, there is subject, noun, linking verb, then adverb, adjective. In Chinese, there is no linking verb, okay? It’s just a noun, adverb, and adjective. |
| 今天好 (Jīntiān hǎo) [adjective] |
| We don’t use 今天是 (jīntiān shì) which is the linking verb in Chinese. We don’t say 今天是好热 (jīntiān shì hǎo rè) or 今天是热 (jīntiān shì rè). Instead, we use noun, adverb, adjective. So, this is a very important and very basic common Chinese grammar. |
| So please remember this: |
| [noun] [adverb] [adjective] |
| Sometimes, we don’t even use the adverb. It’s just [noun] [adjective], but it’s more common, it’s most common when there is a noun, an adverb, an adjective. In this case, the noun is 今天 (jīntiān), the adverb is 好 (hǎo), and then your adjective. |
| For example: |
| 今天好热. (Jīntiān hǎo rè.) |
| [Noun] 今天 (jīntiān), [adverb], [adjective] 热 (rè) |
| 今天好冷。 (Jīntiān hǎo lěng.) |
| 今天好暖和。 (Jīntiān hǎo nuǎnhuo.) |
| And here are a list of the common weather-related adjective or comfort level-related adjective, you can pluck in this pattern. |
| The first, we know 热 (rè). 热 (Rè) means “hot,” 热 (rè). |
| The opposite of 热 (rè) is 冷 (lěng). 冷 (Lěng) means “cold.” |
| 热 (rè) |
| 冷 (lěng) |
| Now, 暖和 (nuǎnhuo), we also talked about 暖和 (nuǎnhuo) here, which means “warm.” So, 暖和 (nuǎnhuo) is in the context of whether it’s being very cold for a while. And then, now, the temperature rises. That’s when you feel 暖和 (nuǎnhuo), 暖和 (nuǎnhuo) “warm.” |
| And the opposite of 暖和 (nuǎnhuo), similarly, when the weather has been very hot for a while and now the temperature drops, that’s when you feel 凉快 (liángkuai), 凉快 (liángkuai). |
| 暖和 (Nuǎnhuo) and 凉快 (liángkuai). |
| For example, spring is warm, so you can say “warm spring,” 暖和的春天 (Nuǎnhuo de chūntiān). |
| 暖和的春天 (Nuǎnhuo de chūntiān) |
| And fall is often very cool, so you can say 凉快的秋天 (liángkuai de qiūtiān). |
| 凉快的秋天 (liángkuai de qiūtiān) |
| Okay. |
| Now, the third pair is something that’s good to know, but if you feel like it’s already too much for you to memorize for this lesson, it’s okay. You don’t have to memorize this, but they’re good to know. |
| 干燥 (gānzào) |
| 干燥 (Gānzào) means “dry.” |
| 干燥 (gānzào) |
| The opposite of 干燥 (gānzào) is 潮湿 (cháoshī) “humid.” |
| 潮湿 (cháoshī) |
| So, you can say 干燥的秋天 (gānzào de qiūtiān) “dry fall” and 潮湿的春天 (cháoshī de chūntiān) “humid spring.” |
| So, it’s especially true for the- so far, China, where I’m from, it’s really humid and 潮湿 (cháoshī) in the spring. |
| So, let’s go over these vocabulary words one more time. Feel free to read after me. Let’s go this way. |
| 热 (rè), 热 (rè) |
| 暖和 (nuǎnhuo), 暖和 (nuǎnhuo) |
| 干燥 (gānzào), 干燥 (gānzào) |
| 冷 (lěng), 冷 (lěng) |
| 凉快 (liángkuai), 凉快 (liángkuai) |
| 潮湿 (cháoshī), 潮湿 (cháoshī) |
| So, to use this in a pattern, for example, we can say: |
| 今天好凉快。 (Jīntiān hǎo liángkuai.) “Today is so cool.” (temperature-wise) |
| 今天好凉快。 (Jīntiān hǎo liángkuai.) |
| Or 今天好干燥。 (Jīntiān hǎo gānzào.) “Today is so dry.” |
| Okay, now, let’s go back to the dialogue. Now, we know the setting of this dialogue is on a hot day, 今天好热 (jīntiān hǎo rè) and the keyword is 热 (rè), right? “Hot,” 热 (rè). So, do you see 热 (rè) anywhere else in this dialogue? Yes, it’s also used in the response line, 太热了 (tài rè le), “too hot.” 太热了 (Tài rè le) means “too hot.” We can use the adjective also in this pattern, this phrase pattern, 太 (tài) [adjective] 了 (le) to say “it’s too (something),” okay. |
| 太热了。 (Tài rè le.) “It’s too hot. |
| Or you can say, 太 (tài)..., 太凉快了 (tài liángkuai le) “it’s so cool.” |
| And 太潮湿了 (tài cháoshī le), “it’s too humid.” |
| So, there you have it, there are two patterns you can use to make small talk about the weather. |
| 今天好 (Jīntiān hǎo) 怎么样 (zěnmeyàng) |
| “Today is so…” |
| And 太 (tài) [adjective] 了 (le). |
| “It’s too (something).” |
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