How to talk about the weather in Italian
Weather is the safest small talk there is, in Italy as anywhere, and it uses some of the most common verbs in the language: fare, essere and avere. Get those three right here and they will be right everywhere.
Verba’s station keeps Florence’s hour, l’ora, and has Florence’s real weather in its windows, rain and fog included. These are the phrases for talking about it.
What it’s like
- Che tempo fa oggi?What's the weather like today?
- Che bella giornata!What a lovely day!
- Fa caldo.It's hot
- Che caldo che fa!It's so hot!
- Fa freddo oggi.It's cold today
- Piove.It's raining
- Tira vento.It's windy
- C'è nebbia stamattina.It's foggy this morning
- Domani c'è il sole.Tomorrow it's sunny
How it makes you feel
- Ho freddo.I'm cold
- Ho sete.I'm thirsty
- Non mi piace il caldo.I don't like the heat
- Odio la pioggia.I hate the rain
- Non pensavo che facesse così freddo.I didn't think it would be this cold
Plans around it
- Speriamo che non piova.Let's hope it doesn't rain
- Se piovesse, potremmo andare al museo.If it rained, we could go to the museum
- Se facesse bel tempo, andremmo al mare.If the weather were nice, we'd go to the seaside
- Se sabato piove, rimandiamo alla settimana dopo.If it rains on Saturday, we'll put it off to the following week
Seasons, and yesterday
- In agosto fa molto caldo.In August it's very hot
- In inverno nevica in montagna.In winter it snows in the mountains
- In autunno cadono le foglie.In autumn the leaves fall
- Preferisco la primavera.I prefer spring
- Ha piovuto tutta la notte.It rained all night
- L'altro ieri ha piovuto.It rained the day before yesterday
- Mentre aspettavo, ha cominciato a piovere.While I was waiting, it started to rain
- Era la prima volta che vedevo la neve.It was the first time I'd seen snow
Fa caldo, ho caldo
The weather is hot: fa caldo. You are hot: ho caldo, I have heat. È caldo is for a thing, like a coffee. Mixing them up is the most common weather mistake English speakers make, and the meaning really changes.
Piove has no it
Italian drops the subject, so it is raining is just piove, and it snows is nevica. There is no word for it to put in front. Che tempo fa? is the question: literally, what weather does it make?
August is hot, the north is foggy
Inland cities like Florence are at their hottest in July and August, when many Italians leave for the sea. In winter the Po valley in the north is known for thick fog, which is why c’è nebbia is a phrase people there use a lot.
Biglietto · Try it
What does it mean?
Question 1 of 5: Fa caldo.
Verba prints lessons like these as train tickets out of Florence, and Selene, its AI tutor, talks them through with you out loud.
