Lesson 31 - Weather

Weather is very important in Japanese culture. It is so important that when talking about the weather, they use the honorific o when saying it. The word for weather is otenki. Weather is an important topic to learn about, for in most Japanese conversations, comments about the weather will be mentioned. Their year also contains the four seasons: haru (spring), natsu (summer), aki (autumn), and fuyu (winter). During the summer, there may be a rainy season called tsuyu or baiu. In this lesson you will learn some of your first adjectives. All adjectives end with i, but adjective endings will be talked about in the next lesson. (Yes, adjectives have endings just like verbs) For now, we will just learn some basic adjectives about the weather. The word for hot is atsui. Warm is a slightly longer word: atatakai. Mushi atsui is humid, literally meaning "hot steam". Cold is samui, with cool being suzushii. To say good is merely ii while the opposite, bad, is warui. Two more helpful words are ame, which is rainy or rain (not really an adjective) and ne, which when used on the end of the sentence can be like "isn't it?". To use these words is very easy. You can either use it with a noun or use it with desu. For instance, to say "it is good weather", you would say Ii otenki desu, while to say "it is hot" you would say Atsui desu. Never use deshita or any other form of desu with only an adjective. It will be explained in the next lesson. Let's have a tiny sample conversation with Chiyo and Masako.

Chiyo: Ohayou, Masa-chan. Ii otenki desu ne.
Masako: Ohayou! Hai, ii otenki desu. Ashita ame desu.
Chiyo: Sou desu ka. Ashita warui desu ne.
Masako: Hai.

In this small dialogue, Chiyo says, "Good morning, Masako! It is good weather, isn't it?" Masako replies, "Yes, it is good weather. Tomorrow it will rain." Chiyo replies, "Really? Tomorrow will be bad weather, won't it?" Masako merely replies, "Yes."

Vocabulary Review
お天気 Otenki- weather
春 Haru- spring
夏 Natsu- summer
秋 Aki- autumn
冬 Fuyu- winter
梅雨 Tsuyu/baiu- rainy season
厚い Atsui- hot
暖かい Atatakai- warm
蒸し暑い Mushi atsui- humid
寒い Samui- cold
涼しい Suzushii- cool
良い Ii- good
悪い Warui- bad
雨 Ame- rainy
ね Ne- isn't it?