Most of us find it difficult to start small talk, especially in a foreign language. But fear not! Here at the Freeway Academy Blog we will give you some advice and examples of how to start a conversation in English about the weather.
Imagine that you are in an elevator and your neighbour/colleague/teacher steps in, you don’t want to stand there in silence so a safe conversation topic is the weather. After greeting them you can ask:
- Lovely day, don’t you think?
- Looks like rain is in the forecast.
- Did you order this beautiful weather?
- Is it hot or cold outside?
- Is it sunny, should I take sunglasses?
- Is it raining outside?
- Should I take my umbrella?
- What’s the weather forecast?
- What’s the weather expected to be tomorrow?
- What’s the temperature?
- How’s the weather?
- What’s it like outside?
Since it’s almost summer you can use the following expressions in your answer:
Boiling / scorching: very hot
Today is a scorcher, it’s boiling! We need to go for swim.
Blue skies: clear skies that are a feature of summer days
Today it’s a perfect day, I woke up this morning to blue skies.
Heatwave: unusually hot weather
I wish I wasn’t stuck in the office during the heatwave, I want to be enjoying the outdoors.
In the shade: find refuge under the cool trees away from the sun
It’s too hot today, I will try to sit in the shade.
Not a cloud in the sky: a perfectly blue sky
It definitely won’t rain today, there is not a cloud in the sky.
Stay out of the sun: too hot to be in direct sunlight
Try to stay out of the sun at midday when it’s the strongest.
Sun-kissed: the look of spending time in the sun
I love to tan on holiday and come back looking sun-kissed.
For English people the weather is one of the most common conversation topics, therefore there are quite a lot of idioms related to the weather. Can you find the meaning of the following idioms?
- To break the ice
- As right as rain
- To be /feel under the weather
- A fair-weather friend
- Calm before the storm
- Every cloud has a silver lining
- It never rains but it pours
- It’s raining cats and dogs
- A storm is brewing
- To steal someone’s thunder
- Save it for a rainy day
- To be on cloud nine
You can leave your answers in the comments.
We’ll upload the definitions in next week’s blog post. See you in 7 days!
