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Talking about rain

Episode 260306 / 06 Mar 2026

(Photo: Getty)

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Introduction

Georgie and Neil have a real conversation in easy English about rain – the wet weather for which England is famous! Learn to talk about when it's spitting, drizzling and pouring.

Vocabulary

spitting
raining lightly, with small to medium sized drops spaced further apart

drizzling
raining lightly, with lots of very small drops spaced close together

pouring
raining heavily

soaked
very wet

soaked to the skin/bone
completely wet, through all your clothes

caught in the rain
rained on when unprepared for wet weather

refreshing
cooling and invigorating

Transcript

Georgie
Hello and welcome to Real Easy English, the podcast where we have real conversations in easy English to help you learn. I'm Georgie.
 
Neil
And I'm Neil. Why not try the video version of this podcast on our website, bbclearningenglish.com? You can read along with the subtitles.
 
Georgie
Hello Neil. How are you today?
 
Neil
I'm fine, thank you, Georgie. I'm jealous of you though because you've just been on an amazing holiday.
 
Georgie
I have. I've just got back from South Africa. I've just got back yesterday and it's already raining and grey.
 
Neil
Already? It's been raining all the time since you've been away.
 
Georgie
Really? Oh no!
 
Neil
Or so it seems. Yes. And we're talking about rain today.
 
Georgie
Yes.
 
Neil
Which is good because we have a lot of it here.

Georgie
Mmm. Has it been... so, the last two weeks has it been light rain, heavy rain?
 
Neil
All kinds of rain, Georgie. We've had heavy rain. We've had showers. We've had drizzle. It's been spitting sometimes.
 
Georgie
OK. So, drizzle and spitting – these are words we use to describe light rain so... Well, this rain is light rain, but you can still get wet from it, can't you?
 
Neil
Drizzle is like very small droplets of rain that are everywhere. Spitting is raining, but lightly. So, the drops are bigger, but it's not so heavy.
 
Georgie
Yeah. And then we can say it's pouring and that means it's heavy rain. And that means you can get quite wet.
 
Neil
Yeah.
 
Georgie
You need to take an umbrella, because the worst thing is to get caught in the rain. So, that means you're unprepared for the rain and then you just get soaking wet. No one wants that.
 
Neil
No. You can get soaked to the skin.
 
Georgie
Ooh, yeah. Soaked to the skin.
 
Neil
Or even soaked to the bone.
 
Georgie
Ooh... and that means to be completely wet. All your clothes are soaking wet.
 
Neil
So, Georgie, it rains a lot in the UK. Do you like rain?

Georgie
I do, actually. I know it's a strange answer, but I do enjoy the rain. Not all the time. No one wants the rain all the time, but I... I like it when it rains because it gives you an excuse to stay inside and rest. And I also like being inside with blankets, nice pyjamas. When it's raining outside, you feel cosy and warm. So, yeah, I don't mind the rain – just not all the time. What about you?
 
Neil
I don't really like rain, but it's OK maybe in winter because you expect – or we expect it to be rainy and probably don't spend much time outside anyway.
 
Georgie
True.
 
Neil
I really don't like rain in the summer because summer's like... this is the good season.
 
Georgie
Yeah.
 
Neil
So, don't spoil it.
 
Georgie
Yeah. I used to live in Barcelona in Spain, and it didn't rain very much there. And I actually missed the rain because every day you wake up, it's sunny and you think I need to go outside, but I like to stay inside sometimes.
 
Neil
Mmm. I suppose the rain can be refreshing sometimes.
 
Georgie
That's true. That is true. When it is raining, what do you like to do?
 
Neil
Well, sometimes you just have to go out, don't you? You can't just stay in. So, I think if you go out into the rain, sometimes it's not as bad as you think it's going to be, when you're in your house looking through the window thinking, "I don't want to go out!"
 
Georgie
Yeah?
 
Neil
And you feel maybe refreshed after being out in the rain.
 
Georgie
Yeah. So, I've talked about living in Barcelona, where it doesn't rain as much. And I actually missed the rain. But what about you, Neil? Would you like to live somewhere where it doesn't rain as much?
 
Neil
Yes, I think less rain would be good for me, but I think, like you, I would miss rain. I think what I like, or would like, is the weather to be more regular. So, if I knew it would rain for a couple of hours every evening, that's fine. But in this country, you don't know what's going to happen from one minute to the next with the weather.
 
Georgie
Yeah.
 
Neil
And that's annoying, basically.
 
Georgie
OK. Let's recap the language we heard during the conversation. We talked about light rain and words that you can use for light rain are it's drizzling or it's spitting.
 
Neil
We also talked about heavy rain, and we can say it's pouring. And if it is pouring, you can get soaked. You can get soaked to the skin or soaked to the bone.
 
Georgie
And soaked to the skin means you get completely wet. All your clothes are wet. Not a nice feeling. We also heard the expression to be caught in the rain, which means that you are unprepared for the rain.
 
Neil
But sometimes if it's really hot and it rains, it's refreshing. It makes you cool down and feel good.
 
Georgie
And that's it for this episode of Real Easy English. Why not test what you've learned using the worksheet on our website? Go to bbclearningenglish.com.
 
Neil
We'll be back next week with another real conversation in easy English. Bye for now.
 
Georgie
See you then!

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