How to Talk About the Weather and Seasons in Chinese

Talking about the weather is a great way to start a casual conversation. With these new vocabulary words, you'll be able to ask about the weather and describe seasons in Chinese. Audio clips to help with listening comprehension and pronunciation are marked with ►.

As you already know, there are four seasons: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Let's learn the Mandarin Chinese names for these seasons.

First off, we need to learn how to say "season":

seasons
►jì jié​
(trad) 季節
(simp) 季节

Let's move on to season names:

spring
春天 ►chūn tiān
summer
夏天 ►xià tiān
autumn
秋天 ►qiū tiān
winter
冬天 ►dōng tiān

Now let's get more specific and talk about day-to-day weather.

While reading through this vocabulary list, think about how you can apply these new words. What is the weather usually like in 秋天 (qiū tiān)? What about 夏天 (xià tiān)? What is the weather like for you today?

weather
(trad) 天氣 / (simp) 天气 ►tiān qì
good
好 ►hǎo
sunny
晴朗 ►qíng lǎng
overcast
(trad) 多雲/ (simp) 多云 ►duō yún
raining
下雨 ►xià yǔ
snowing
下雪 ►xià xuě
cold
冷 ►lěng
hot
(trad) 熱 / (simp) 热 ►rè
warm
溫暖 ►wēn nuǎn
cool
涼爽 ►liáng shuǎng

Now that you have a basis in describing the weather, put it to use by incorporating this new vocabulary into a sentence. 

What's the weather like?
►tiān qì zěn me yàng?
(trad) 天氣怎麼樣?
(simp) 天气怎么样?
It's cold.
►hěn lěng
很冷
It's raining.
►xià yǔ
下雨
The weather's not good.
►tiān qì bù hǎo
(trad) 天氣不好
(simp) 天气不好
It's good.
►hěn hǎo
很好
It's hot.
►hěn rè
(trad) 很熱
(simp) 很热