Learning Vocabulary: It's raining cats and dogs!

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Premier Skills English: Learning Vocabulary - It's raining cats and dogs

Learning goals

Skills: Listening

Language: Words and phrases connected to rain

Task: Talking about rain in your country

Learning Vocabulary: It's raining cats and dogs!

In this week's Premier Skills English Podcast, Jack and Rich talk about rain. It rains quite a lot in the UK so we have a lot of words and phrases connected to rain. Do you know the phrases 'torrential downpour' and 'raining cats and dogs'? Your task this week is to answer three questions about rain in your country. Don't forget to listen to the end of the podcast because we have a new football phrase for you to guess, too. Enjoy!

If the listening was a bit difficult, you can listen again and read the transcript at the same time.

Read the transcript and listen at the same time.

Opening - It’s raining cats and dogs!

Jack: Hey, Rich. How are you doing? Have a good weekend?

Rich: Great thanks, I went away.

Jack: Nice. How was the weather?

Rich: It was lovely - glorious sunshine. Not a cloud in the sky.

Jack: You got lucky, it was horrible here. It didn’t stop raining all weekend.

Rich: Not at all?

Jack: Not really. It went from drizzle to bucketing it down then back to drizzle again. There might have been a couple of hours when it was just cloudy and damp, but I didn’t want to risk being caught in a shower.

Rich: It’s only rain.

Jack: I hate rain.

Rich: I love rain.

Jack: Why?

Rich: There’s not that much rain where I live so when it rains it’s good for the land, good for the plants, good for the animals and for the reservoirs. I like going out in the rain and getting wet, too.

Jack: Yeah, well it rains too much where I live if you ask me.

Rich: Don’t be grumpy. It’s good for football too. When it rains and the ball skids off the grass, I love that - it makes for a really fast and exciting game. And you can do fantastic slide tackles too!

Jack: Yeah, but if there’s too much rain the match might be postponed.

Rich: Don’t be so grumpy. Here - I’ve got a joke about rain. Do you want to hear it?

Jack: Go on then, if you must.

Rich: Why did the man use ketchup in the rain?

Jack: I don’t know. Why did the man use ketchup in the rain?

Rich: Because it was raining cats and hot dogs.

Jack: Nooo! That’s sooo bad!

Welcome - It's raining cats and dogs!

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich

Jack: and I’m Jack

Rich: and welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast

Jack: Where we talk about football and help you with your English.

Jack: What’s happening this week, Rich?

Rich: In this week’s podcast, we’re going to talk about the weather and more specifically - rain.

Jack: There are lots of different words for rain and how we describe some of the things which rain causes.

Rich: I suppose there are so many words because rain is something that affects everyone; from footballers to farmers.

Jack: So, we have lots of vocabulary for you to learn and in this week’s task we ask you to tell us how rain affects people in your country in different ways.

Rich: Don’t forget to listen to the end of the podcast because we have this week’s football phrase for you to guess, too.

Topic Focus

Rich: You are going to listen to a short role play. While you listen, we want you to answer three questions.

Jack: Question one: Where are we going?

Rich: Question two: What have I forgotten?

Jack: And question three: Why are we disappointed?

Roleplay

Jack: It’s absolutely chucking it down. I can hardly see through the windscreen.

Rich: Come on we can park here. It’s not far to the ground. Have you got a brolly?

Jack: No, my coat’s got a hood but you’re going to get soaked!

Rich: Hold on! I’ll use this book - an English textbook - nice and big. Shall we wait a couple of minutes and see if the rain slows down?

Jack: No, come on. It’s already ten to three. We’ll miss the kick off. Watch out for those puddles!

Rich: Jeez! I’m absolutely drenched. Where is everybody?

Jack: I don’t know. Here, I’ll go and ask that old bloke over there.

...

Rich: What’s going on?

Jack: He says that the match has been called off due to torrential rain. He says the pitch is waterlogged - it’s like a swimming pool.

Rich: Great! We should have checked that before.

Jack: Come on, back to the car. It’s only drizzling now.

Language Focus 1

Rich: In the roleplay, we both got very wet because of the rain. Let’s look at some vocabulary connected to rain.

Jack: At the beginning, I said it was chucking it down. This is an informal phrase that means it’s raining very heavily. There are similar phrases you can use here with the same meaning.

Rich: You could say, ‘it’s throwing it down’, ‘it’s bucketing down’ or ‘it’s pouring it down’ which have the same meaning. We often add absolutely here for extra emphasis, ‘it’s absolutely pouring it down outside’.

Jack: You can also use the idiom ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’ but, to be honest, I’m not sure that many people use this idiom any more, I think it’s a bit old-fashioned.

Rich: It’s a shame because it is a great idiom!

Jack: So all of those are informal phrases to mean it’s raining heavily. One phrase that we used, ‘torrential rain’ is a bit more formal.

Rich: This phrase also means very heavy rain but it’s more common in newspapers and on the TV when describing bad weather.

Jack: A weather forecaster might say something like ‘torrential rain and thunderstorms have hit the east coast of the USA causing damage to many buildings’.

Rich: The word ‘downpour’ is also more common in the media. A downpour is usually heavy rain that happens suddenly. The most common collocations are ‘heavy downpour’ or ‘intense downpour’.

Jack: Another type of rain that starts suddenly is a ‘shower’. The important thing to remember is that ‘showers’ are sudden and happen over a short period of time.

Rich: You can have ‘heavy or light showers’ ‘wintry showers’ which means it’s snowing or ‘scattered showers’ which means will fall in over some parts of a piece of land and not on others, and finally you can have ‘isolated showers’ which is connected to time. It means it will be mainly dry with some showers occasionally.

Jack: There is another type of rain, too. The type we get in the UK a lot - drizzle. It’s the type of rain I hate the most. It’s light rain that lasts a long time. All day sometimes.

Rich: Yes, it can be annoying and maybe stop you from doing what you want to do. When we talk about light rain some people also say it’s spitting which is when it is starting to rain.

Language Focus 2

Rich: So we’ve looked at some words to describe different types of rain and now we’re going to look at some of the words that are caused by rain that we used in the roleplay.

Jack: I told Rich to watch out for those puddles.

Rich: My little boy loves to jump in muddy puddles!

Jack: Puddles are the small pools of water left behind on the ground after it has been raining. I don’t know why but I think it’s a fantastic sounding word. Puddles.

Rich: A word I don’t like is waterlogged because it makes me think of football matches being called off or cancelled.

Jack: That’s right. When it rains too much football pitches become waterlogged. There is too much water on them, they become flooded and you can’t play.

Rich: Flooded is a more general word. A house can be flooded or a city or area when there are torrential downpours for a long period of time.

Jack: The opposite of this is a drought. A drought occurs when there is no rain for a long time. Droughts and the lack of water are a big problem that affects a lot of countries.

Rich: Going back to the roleplay, you might remember that I didn’t have a brolly. A brolly is an informal word for umbrella.

Jack: This meant that Rich got wet. There are different ways to say that you are wet.

Rich: I was very, very wet so I used the words ‘soaked’ and ‘drenched’. Both of these adjectives mean to be very wet and again you can add ‘absolutely’ to add more emphasis. ‘I’m absolutely drenched’.

Jack: Two nice idioms here are ‘I’m soaked to the skin’ and ‘soaked to the bone’ which also mean very, very wet.

Rich: Finally, there are some words that mean a little wet but these are usually used to describe things rather than people. Your clothes might be damp if you spill some water, you might need to keep soil moist if you want to grow some types of plant or the air might be humid if you live near the coast or in a hot, wet place.

Task

Rich: Your task this week is to tell us about rain in your country.

Jack: We want you to answer these three questions.

Rich: Question one: How often does it rain in your country?

Jack: Question two: Is too much rain or too little rain ever a problem in your country?

Rich: Question three: Have you ever needed to change your plans because it rained?

Jack: Answer as many of the questions as you want in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

Football Phrase

Rich: Have you got a football phrase for us this week?

Jack: Yes, I have, but first, last week’s football phrase. The phrase was to be given your marching orders. The phrase means the same as to be given a red card or to be sent off. The phrase can also mean to be sacked or fired from your job and was originally used in the army to describe the instructions soldiers were given when they had to march from one place to another.

Rich: Not many of you got it last week but well done to Lakerwang from China, Acicala from Spain, Zaid from India, Kwesimanifest from Ghana and Ahmed Adam from Sudan who did get it right! What’s this week’s phrase, Jack?

Jack: This week’s football phrase is *********** *****. When this happens football matches have to be postponed or called off because there is too much water on the playing area. We might hear someone on the TV say ‘match postponed due to a *********** *****’.

Rich: We used both these words in this week’s podcast but not this exact phrase which should make things easier for you.

Jack: Right, that’s all we have time for this week! Don’t forget to write your answers to the task in the comments section below.

Rich: And make a guess at our football phrase. Bye for now and enjoy your football!

How much did you understand?

In the podcast, Rich and Jack used some words and phrases that might be new for you. Do you know the words in bold?

When it rains the ball skids off the grass and you can do fantastic slide tackles!

Have you got a brolly?

My coat has a hood so I won't get wet.

There were a few more tricky words and phrases in the podcast. Do you know what they all mean? Try the activity below, then, listen to the podcast again to hear how we used the words. This can really help your understanding.

Activity 1: In this activity, try to match the words and phrases to their definitions. All of the words were in this week's podcast.

Manchester City fans prepared for the wet weather.

Describing Rain

In this week's podcast, Jack and Rich spoke about rain. There are many words and phrases to describe rain. Let's start by looking at how we describe the strength of rain and how long it lasts.

Heavy rain:

Look at these three sentences from the podcast. All of them describe heavy rain but two of them are informal and one is more formal. Which phrase is commonly used in more formal situations?

It’s absolutely chucking it down. I can hardly see through the windscreen.

It went from drizzle to bucketing it down then back to drizzle again.

Torrential rain and thunderstorms have hit the east coast of the USA.

Light rain:

Here are two ways to describe light rain. One of them describes rain that is persistent (that won't go away), which word do you think it is?

It went from drizzle to bucketing it down then back to drizzle again.

Come on, let's go out. It's only spitting.

Showers:

Showers are short periods of precipitation (rain, snow, sleet or hail) and you often see and hear the word in weather forecasts. Look at these sentences taken from weather forecasts. Do you know what the phrases in bold mean?

The morning will be a mixture of sunshine and showers today.

There will be heavy showers in the morning but it will brighten up in the afternoon.

It will be mainly dry throughout the country with a few isolated showers in the north.

It will be a cold and windy start to the day with wintry showers in the afternoon.

Take a look at the following activity. Can you choose the right weather word?

Activity 2: In this activity, try to remember some of the words connected to rain that Jack and Rich introduced in the podcast.

It's often a good idea to take a brolly to the match.

Getting wet

If we're outside and it rains, we often get wet, unless we have a hood on our coat or a brolly with us. Some people where wellington boots or wellies on their feet so they can walk through the puddles without a problem. But, rain often catches us without these items and we get wet. We often complain about how wet we get in the rain. Look at these sentences:

I'm absolutely drenched.

I'm totally soaked.

I'm soaked to the skin.

All three of these sentences describe someone that is very, very wet. When we describe something as a little wet we are usually describing things rather than people. We tend to describe things differently depending on the item or its consistency:

You need to keep soil moist if you want to grow lots of green vegetables.

The cloth needs to be a little damp to wipe the table.

That sandwich is a bit soggy. I don't want to eat it.

It's hot and humid in a rainforest.

Take a look at the next activity. Can you choose the right words for each gap?

Activity 3: In this activity, try to match the synonyms of wet that are most strongly associated with each object.

You need a good brolly in Manchester!

Can you guess this week's football phrase?

Quiz

Rain in your country

This week's task is to answer three questions about rain. Try to use some of the vocabulary you have learned in this podcast.

How often does it rain in your country?
Is too much rain or too little rain ever a problem in your country?
Have you ever needed to change your plans because it rained?

Write your answers in the comments section below and make a guess at this week's football phrase.