What you will be able to do
- Describe the weather with an adjective predicate and no verb: 今天很冷.
- Use 下 with 雨 and 雪, and add 了 when the rain has just started.
- Name the four seasons and say which one you prefer, with a reason.
本文中的中文词语都可以激活，查看词典释义。
Weather and seasons
Asking
- ？ Jīntiān tiānqì zěnmeyàng? — What is the weather like today?
- ？ Míngtiān lěng bu lěng? — Will it be cold tomorrow?
tiānqì is one word, weather, and it behaves as an ordinary noun. zěnmeyàng is how, what sort, and the verb-not-verb form is a second way of asking a yes/no question without .
Weather is adjectives, and adjectives take
An adjective in Mandarin is its own predicate. There is no anywhere in a weather sentence.
- 。 Jīntiān hěn rè. — It is hot today.
- 。 Jīntiān bù lěng.
- 。 Běijīng de dōngtiān hěn lěng.
is wrong. And a bare , with nothing in front of the adjective, sounds unfinished — as though a comparison is about to follow. That is why is there: not as very, but as a small piece of scaffolding that lets the adjective stand up. When you really do mean very, fēicháng is the word: 。
carries anything that falls
- xià yǔ — to rain. 。 Jīntiān xià yǔ.
- xià xuě — to snow. 。 Běijīng dōngtiān chángcháng xià xuě.
The verb comes first and the thing that falls is its object, which is the reverse of the English arrangement. is not a sentence, and there is no verb to rain on its own.
Two additions worth having:
- for a change of state: 。 Wàimiàn xià yǔ le. — It has started raining.
- for a prediction: 。 Míngtiān huì xià xuě. — It will snow tomorrow. Without the sentence is a plain statement about tomorrow, which is also fine; adds the sense of I expect.
guā fēng, to blow a wind, is built the same way: verb first, weather second.
Degrees
- 。 Jīntiān èrshíwǔ dù. — Twenty-five degrees today.
- 。 Zuótiān líng xià wǔ dù. — Five below yesterday.
dù is the degree. Again no verb is required; the number and the unit are the whole predicate.
The four seasons
- chūntiān spring, xiàtiān summer, qiūtiān autumn, dōngtiān winter.
The here is not day; it is the same as in , the sky and the weather that comes out of it. The four words are as regular as the months, and they take to attach to a place: 。 Shànghǎi de xiàtiān hěn rè.
- ，。 Wǒ zuì xǐhuan qiūtiān, yīnwèi bù lěng yě bú rè. — I like autumn best, because it is neither cold nor hot.
Note …… as the frame for neither… nor, and note that is fourth tone, so the second is bú.
Comparing two days
Once you have , the weather becomes the easiest thing in the language to compare, because both terms are already adjectives:
- 。 Jīntiān bǐ zuótiān rè.
- 。 Běijīng bǐ Shànghǎi lěng.
And notice that has disappeared. In a sentence the comparison holds the adjective up, so the scaffolding is not needed — and is in fact wrong.
How to work through it
No verb in sightread
Read the first two sections and then find the verb in 今天很热, 今天二十五度 and 北京的冬天很冷. There is not one in any of them. That absence is the point, and it is what makes weather the easiest topic at this level.
Hot, cold, and four seasonsvocabulary
冷 and 热 are an opposite pair and belong on one card. The four seasons share their second syllable, so learn them as a single chain and say them in order until the chain runs by itself.
It has started rainingsentence
Say each of these and explain what the last word changes: 今天下雨。 / 外面下雨了。 / 明天会下雨。 One is a fact, one is news, one is a forecast. Then do the same three with 下雪.
很 or nothing at allquiz
Ten items. Five put an adjective on its own and ask what has to go in front of it; five turn the same adjective into a 比 comparison, where 很 must now be removed. The two halves are the same rule seen from both sides.
Three days of weatherspeaking
Report yesterday, today and tomorrow in six sentences: temperature, rain or no rain, and one comparison with 比. Finish by answering 你最喜欢哪个季节？为什么？ with a reason that uses 因为.