Today's words · ☀️ Weather
Talk about the weather like a German: 10 words
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When a German conversation stalls, the weather will always rescue you.
You're waiting at a bus stop in Berlin and the older lady next to you looks up and sighs, "Schon wieder Regen!" You'd love to answer, but your mind goes blank. German weather changes several times a day, so moments like this come up a lot.
Today's ten words are the ones you need for weather chat. With them you can follow the forecast, decide whether to take an umbrella and have a quick moan with the neighbours. ☔
📋 The ten words at a glance
🧠 Words, examples and memory tricks
das Wetter
[VET-er]weather(no pl.)
📌 Wie ist das Wetter heute?
→ What's the weather like today?
💡 A twin of English weather 🌦️ Just say the W like a V.
Bonus The weather is nice = Das Wetter ist schön.
die Sonne
[ZON-uh]sun; sunshine(Pl. die Sonnen)
📌 Heute scheint die Sonne.
→ The sun is shining today.
💡 Same root as sun ☀️ The sun is feminine (die), the moon is masculine (der Mond) — the opposite of many languages.
Bonus Adjective: sonnig = sunny
der Regen
[RAY-gen]rain(no pl.)
📌 Morgen gibt es viel Regen.
→ There will be a lot of rain tomorrow.
💡 Same family as rain 🌧️ Stretch out the ‘RAY’ and you can hear a long grey drizzle.
Bonus umbrella = der Regenschirm · rainbow = der Regenbogen
regnen
[RAYG-nen]to rain(regnet – hat geregnet)
📌 Es regnet schon den ganzen Tag.
→ It's been raining all day.
💡 der Regen + -en = to rain ☔ Just like English, it always needs an ‘it’: es.
⚠ Never without es: Es regnet.
der Schnee
[SHNAY]snow((no pl.))
📌 Morgen soll es Schnee geben.
→ It's supposed to snow tomorrow.
💡 Snow with an extra ‘sh’ ❄️ s-n-o → Schn-ee.
Bonus to snow = schneien: Es schneit.
der Wind
[VINT]wind(Pl. die Winde)
📌 Heute ist viel Wind.
→ It's very windy today.
💡 Spelt exactly like English wind 🌬️ but the W sounds like V and the d like t.
Bonus windy = windig: Es ist windig.
bewölkt
[buh-VURLKT]cloudy, overcast📌 Morgen ist es bewölkt.
→ It'll be cloudy tomorrow.
💡 die Wolke (cloud) is hiding inside ☁️ A sky wrapped in clouds is bewölkt.
Bonus Opposites: sonnig (sunny), wolkenlos (cloudless)
das Gewitter
[guh-VIT-er]thunderstorm(Pl. die Gewitter)
📌 Heute Abend gibt es ein Gewitter.
→ There's going to be a thunderstorm this evening.
💡 ge- + Wetter = all the weather at once ⛈️ Thunder and lightning included.
Bonus lightning = der Blitz · thunder = der Donner
der Grad
[GRAHT]degree (temperature)(Pl. die Grade (Grad Celsius))
📌 Heute sind es 25 Grad.
→ It's 25 degrees today.
💡 A cousin of grade and degree 🌡️ Each little step on the thermometer is a Grad.
⚠ No plural after numbers: 25 Grad, not Grade. And the verb is plural: Es sind 25 Grad.
die Wettervorhersage
[VET-er-for-hair-zah-guh]weather forecast(Pl. die Wettervorhersagen)
📌 Die Wettervorhersage für das Wochenende ist gut.
→ The weather forecast for the weekend is good.
💡 Wetter + vorher (beforehand) + sagen (to say) = saying the weather in advance 📺 The word explains itself.
🇩🇪 A spoonful of German culture
Germans love talking about the weather. In the lift or at the till, a simple "Schönes Wetter heute!" is enough to start a chat. After a long grey winter, the first sunny spring day fills every park and café terrace in minutes.
April weather can bring sun, rain and hail in a single afternoon, so German has a word for it: Aprilwetter. There's even a rhyme: "April, April, der macht, was er will." (April does whatever it wants.)
That's why you'll often hear: "Es gibt kein schlechtes Wetter, nur falsche Kleidung." There's no bad weather, only the wrong clothes. Plenty of people carry a light rain jacket in their bag just in case. 🧥
✅ Quick quiz
Q. A friend asks you how warm it is today. What do you say?
- ① Es regnet seit Stunden.
- ② Es sind 18 Grad.
- ③ Es gibt heute viel Schnee.
Show the answer
② Es sind 18 Grad.
Es sind 18 Grad. = It's 18 degrees — temperature uses Grad, with no plural ending.
Look out of the window and describe today's weather in one German sentence. Heute ist es bewölkt, aber es regnet nicht! 🌤️
🔜 Tomorrow's topic: 🛍️ Shopping