The weather

Introduction to Weather Expressions in German

In this lesson, you will learn how to talk about the weather and different times of the day in German. You will explore the use of adverbs referring to times of day—like "morgens" (in the morning), "nachmittags" (in the afternoon), "abends" (in the evening), and "nachts" (at night)—and how to describe weather conditions using common vocabulary such as "der Regen" (rain), "der Wind" (wind), "die Sonne" (sun), alongside adjectives like "kalt" (cold) and "heiß" (hot).

Key Grammar Points

The lesson covers basic sentence structures involving weather verbs such as "scheinen" (to shine), "regnen" (to rain), and uses the negation words "kein" and "nicht" for expressing absence or negating weather conditions. For example, "Ich habe keinen Regenschirm" (I don’t have an umbrella) and "Heute bleibt der Regen zum Glück aus" (Fortunately, the rain stays away today).

Practical Vocabulary and Phrases

You will practice sorting words into categories of weather phenomena and descriptions and learn to use time-of-day adverbs in context. Phrases like "Nachmittags scheint meistens die Sonne hell" (In the afternoon, the sun mostly shines brightly) and "Abends wird es kalt und der Wind weht stärker" (In the evening, it becomes cold and the wind blows stronger) help build practical speaking skills.

Interactive Dialogues and Exercises

Engage in useful dialogues set in everyday situations such as discussing the weather in an office, during a walk, or in a café to improve conversational fluency. Verb conjugation exercises reinforce your understanding of present tense forms for relevant verbs.

Special Notes on Usage

In German, time expressions are commonly used as adverbs without prepositions (e.g., "morgens" rather than "am Morgen") which differs from English usage where prepositions like "in" or "at" are necessary. The distinction between "kein" (used to negate nouns, e.g., no umbrella) and "nicht" (used to negate verbs or adjectives) is an important aspect of German negation. Useful phrases include "Es regnet nicht" (It is not raining) versus "Ich habe keinen Regenschirm" (I do not have an umbrella).