Hello and a very warm welcome back to the Easy English Podcast.
I'm your host Oliver, and in today's episode we are going to practice our English listening skills and learn some very useful new words.
The season is changing, and as the weather is changing, it is becoming colder in many countries.
And in others, it's becoming warmer.
So, when seasons change, we are often talking about the weather.
We're discussing it.
We are describing it.
And I've done some other topics in the past on weather small talk and things like that.
But today I want to talk about different types of weather and to give you more advanced vocabulary and phrases to discuss these.
And being able to master this weather talk can be a real sign of good fluency in English.
Being able to not only talk about the temperature, but being able to use specific language for the type of weather.
And if anything, listening to this should help you understand some of that conversation.
Okay, so lots of new listeners.
Very quickly, we're going to look at our five key pieces of vocabulary.
If you're new.
This is where we look at five new words that I want you to listen for in today's episode.
So I'm going to tell you the words and give you the definitions.
Okay, let's hear them.
The first is forecast.
Forecast.
Forecast.
And this is a noun and it means a prediction or an estimate of future weather.
For example, the weekend weather forecast looks terrible.
So the weather looks like it's going to be very bad this weekend.
The next word is muggy.
Muggy.
That's a strange sounding word.
This is an adjective for the weather and it means unpleasantly warm and humid.
So the humidity, the water in the air is high.
It's very warm and there's lots of water in the air.
It's very humid.
It is muggy.
The air is so muggy today, it's hard to breathe.
UK weather in summer, if it gets hot, if there's a heat wave, it is very muggy, especially in the south of England.
Our third word today is blustery.
Blustery.
This is an excellent adjective and one that I would use a lot in the UK, so it means it's characterized.
So if the weather is blustery, there are very strong winds.
The wind is strong.
The event was cancelled because of the blustery weather.
The fourth word to listen for in this episode is chilly, chilly.
And this is unpleasantly cold.
So it is cold, but not in a nice way.
And our final word today is dreadful, dreadful.
This is also an adjective and it means extremely bad or serious if something is dreadful.
And we usually use this adjective before a type of weather that we don't like.
That has been very bad.
So, for example, the rain has been dreadful or we have had dreadful rain all week.
But okay, listen for those words, and I'm going to teach you some of those in more detail as we go, as well as some other excellent, excellent words for talking about the weather.
So make sure you listen to the end to hear some of these extra words too.
Okay, so let's go to our main episode.
If you're a new listener with us or you've been listening for a while, make sure that you're subscribed and following the podcast and that you've rated the podcast five stars.
I always have to remind, but it is surprising, and even to the people that have done this a long time ago, when i look at the statistics, You know almost 60 of people who listen to the podcast regularly haven't actually subscribed.
So I think that's crazy or they haven't followed if you're on Spotify as well.
Okay, so let's look at our main episode topic today.
So I don't want to talk too much about the cultural reasons about talking about the weather.
This episode is going to be more focused on vocabulary and phrases.
So properly discussing the weather and helping you to understand how to talk about it.
But without talking about the weather, of course, I have to mention why it's important.
Basically, whether it's small talk, which I've talked about and done separate episodes on before, or simply there is an extreme or different weather, you're going to talk about it, of course.
Weather affects us every single day.
It affects what clothing we wear.
It affects where we go, what we do.
So naturally, we are going to talk about it.
It doesn't matter what country you're from or you live in.
You probably will talk about the weather.
We always do say that in the UK we talk about the weather so much because it is so unpredictable and it changes very fast.
The weather here can change four or five times in one day.
It can be horrible.
In the morning it can be dreadful, so the rain can be dreadful and then by the afternoon it can be beautiful, clear skies and sunny, but in the evening it is cloudy and windy And terrible.
But if you want to know a little bit about why we talk about the weather so much in the UK, so much extra, in more detail, I did release on Patreon an episode a bonus episode, a couple of weeks ago about exactly that.
So why the weather is such an important topic and a really common talked about topic in the UK.
So if you subscribe and support the patreon, you get access to that as well as more bonus episodes every single week.
But enough about that, let's continue with our episode.
So When we're describing and talking about the weather to sound natural, it can really help to go beyond the usual basic descriptions.
So, for example, you might say it is raining or it is snowing.
It is cold today.
Tomorrow will be better.
This is great and these are great ways to express and describe.
But if you're wanting to take your English to the next level, then you're going to want to use some more descriptive adjectives and phrases.
And what better way to learn some of these phrases than learning phrases that native speakers actually use?
So that's what I'm going to teach you today.
Phrases and words that we native speakers in the UK actually use to talk about the weather.
So you're not using something that you've heard maybe in a movie or in a book that is not relevant.
So let's look at particularly bad weather.
So most of the time when we talk about the weather, we're talking about it in a negative way, right?
Sometimes we talk about how nice it is, but that's easy.
You can say that the weather is delightful, it is wonderful, it is great, it's amazing.
But all of the best words and descriptions, to be honest, are for bad weather.
So that's what I'm going to teach you.
Now let's look at talking about the cold or the wind.
So we're starting with what I think are two of some of the most common weather features that we have here in winter.
Cold and wind.
So you might usually say it's cold or it's very cold.
But let's look at some different sections of this.
So if you're talking about unpleasant cold, so it's cold, but it's not very nice.
You're not enjoying that feeling.
You can say that it's chilly.
I mentioned this.
It's a key vocabulary for today.
And But it's chilly or, a new one, it's nippy.
Nippy.
Chilly and nippy are description words.
They're adjectives for unpleasant cold.
It's a bit nippy this morning.
I need to wear an extra jumper.
It's feeling a little bit chilly this evening.
Let's put the heating on.
Those really are natural ways that we would describe the cold.
So chilly and nippy.
Now, what about when it's very cold, but there is a cold wind?
So usually we would describe this cold wind as being blustery, blustery, or even gusty.
Or if you're inside and you feel a little bit of a cold wind coming through your house.
We would describe that as drafty.
But let's not worry too much about that one.
It's quite specific.
So blustery and gusty to describe a cold wind.
The wind is very gusty today.
It's very blustery.
It keeps knocking things over outside.
Okay, two more on the cold that I want to teach you, right?
The first is going to be quite a common complaint.
So an idiom that people use to complain about the cold.
And that is that they can feel it in their bones.
So you might say, oh, it's so cold.
I can feel it in my bones.
It means that the cold is affecting you deeply.
So deep that you feel it inside your bones.
And I'm going to teach you a very local phrase.
So this I don't know if people use it in England so much, but they do use it in Northern Ireland and Scotland.
And this is a phrase or a description that we use.
And I'm going to tell you this because I use it all the time.
And a lot of my family members use it too.
So this phrase is the very exclusive one.
You've probably never heard it before.
It is, it's Baltic.
It's Baltic.
Literally, it's Baltic.
Like the Baltic Sea.
That is what it is referencing.
So we're saying it's so cold that it is like the Baltic Sea in winter.
It's Baltic.
That's one I like.
So if you're from a country that is around the Baltic Sea, there you go.
There is a new phrase that a lot of people use in Northern Ireland talking about your sea.
Okay, so how about we get around to...
Actually, let's stay with this time of year.
We'll go to the heat later.
So we'll go to the heat afterwards.
But let's say we're at a time where there's lots of rain which, to be honest, in the UK that could be any time right.
And I could talk about rain for a whole episode, but to give you three categories, right?
So, or two categories, let's say.
We've got light and heavy rain.
So for light rain, if there's only a little bit of rain, not too much, we would say that that is a drizzle.
It is a drizzle.
So light rain, so not so heavy, is a drizzle.
Oh, it's only a drizzle outside.
We don't need an umbrella.
It's not heavy rain.
And for heavy rain, we can use the phrase downpour or pouring.
So it's pouring down outside.
There is a downpour.
The rain is so heavy outside, it is pouring.
Hopefully that shows you how we use it.
So a drizzle is very light.
If it's pouring or there's a downpour, it is heavy.
And we could say that there is dreadful rain.
There is dreadful rain.
The rain is bad.
It's annoying.
Okay, quite a few phrases.
So let's go through now to learn a little bit about talking about heat in a negative way.
So instead of using it's hot people here because in the UK when it's hot we have high humidity as well
So what that means is there's a lot of water in the air.
And this is because the UK is an island.
So there is a lot of water around our country.
And as a result, the air is quite humid because of the climate.
So often when it's warm.
We would not, if it's very hot, let's say, we would not just say that it's hot.
We would say that it is muggy.
It is muggy.
And that's because the air is also wet.
It is hot but wet and it can become quite hard to breathe because of the heat.
But generally, right, people will complain a bit about it being muggy or being hot.
But in general, when the weather is good here because it's not that often people will think that it is amazing and they will be in great moods, for most people.
So you'll hear descriptions about the weather being wonderful, being fantastic or, my personal favorite word glorious, glorious.
The weather is glorious outside.
It just means that it is amazing.
It is unbelievable.
And you'll hear people say this even when it's only like plus 22 outside.
You know, it's not crazy hot, but people will say it is glorious.
It is amazing.
It's not raining and it's warmer than plus 20.
Fantastic.
Glorious.
Okay, let's take a break from our weather topic and I'm going to read some of your comments from the listener spotlight.
Last week's episode was all about careers.
It was about talking about your job and career in English.
And I asked some of you to write to me, to leave comments and tell me about what your job is, what your career is, to give me some answers about this.
And I had quite a few comments on YouTube not as many on Spotify actually, but quite a lot of comments on YouTube on this episode.
So I'm going to read out some of these comments because they were really, really great.
Okay, so the first one is from Adam, and Adam said, Hi Oliver, thanks for the episode.
Here is my answer to your question.
I am a physiotherapist from Poland.
My main responsibility for about 13 years is to support my patients in their way to full health and activity.
My specialization is the orthopedic part of my profession.
I usually work with people after lower limb surgeries and back pain.
But the full spectrum of our work is really big.
In fact, our approach is to support the whole process.
This includes taking a full medical history, doing a physical examination and then planning a therapy or a therapy program.
I guess.
My profession has a big con, though.
My salary and operating range depend on time I can spend with my patients.
Because of that, I've decided to create my own YouTube channel, Adam Ostrowski International, to reach a wider audience.
I believe it helps me to grow my personal brand and help more people take care of their health.
Thank you very much for that wonderful comment, Adam.
That seems like a fantastic way to grow your profession and share your knowledge with other people around the world.
It sounds like a very rewarding job.
I don't fully understand all of the details of what physiotherapists do, but it does sound quite complicated but very rewarding.
So thank you very much for your comment.
It was very well written.
Excellent English.
I really appreciate the time that you took to put that comment together.
And it's fantastic work.
So you're doing very well with your learning.
I had another comment on YouTube.
I don't have a name, but they said Hi Oliver, I worked as administrative staff at an elementary school.
My main responsibilities were handling money, purchasing teaching materials and taking calls from parents.
I quit this job eight months ago to come abroad on a working holiday.
Recently, I've been looking for a job.
I want to work as an office worker again because I think it suits my personality.
Well, good luck and I hope that you find a job that really suits you and that you love very soon.
Thank you very much for the brilliant comment.
We had another comment.
So there were so many comments this week.
It was from a user called Elif Irkaraman.
I apologize.
It's very hard sometimes to read the YouTube names.
But they said, firstly, I can honestly feel that your podcasts are helping me improve.
I'm studying computer engineering and my goal for the future is to keep improving myself, both academically and personally.
My ambition is learning languages, because every new language feels like a new way of seeing the world.
That's an excellent way to look at it.
I love that perspective.
It really does help you to view the world in different ways.
Languages are a wonderful portal and a wonderful door or entry point to all of this content, culture and different view of the things around us.
So it's a wonderful reason for learning and studying.
And good luck with your computer engineering studies as well.
Okay, thank you all for listening to the listener spotlight, for writing in your comments and answering my questions.
This week's question for this week's listener spotlight is I want you to answer what is your favorite type of weather and why?
Especially, you know, if you have some interesting choices.
So what is your favorite type of weather and why?
Write me an answer in the comments and I will read out a few of them, just like today, in next week's episode.
So today we have learnt some really useful phrases for talking about the weather, for talking about the cold, the rain and the heat.
So I want you to try and practice using these phrases.
Over the next few weeks, as the weather changes, try to use some of them.
Even think to yourself ooh, it's a little bit chilly outside, it's blustery, it's gusty, it's drizzling or it's pouring if it's raining.
But I do hope that you have some lovely, lovely weather over the next few weeks and that you can say the weather outside is glorious.
It's not Baltic.
It's glorious.
Thank you very much for listening.
And, as always, all of the links are in the description of each episode for the different ways that you can support the show and get more learning.
Take your learning to the next level as well.
Thank you so much for listening and have a wonderful rest of your day.
And I will chat to you very soon.
Goodbye.
