A Weather Report (天气预报)

A weather forecast is your first real taste of 书面语 (shūmiànyǔ), the formal written-and-broadcast register of Chinese — clipped, impersonal, and built from a fixed set of phrases you will hear in exactly this form every single day. The good news is that once you learn its handful of patterns, you can understand any Chinese forecast, because they are all assembled from the same parts: 有 for whatever is in the sky, 度 for temperatures, 转 for "turning into," and a polite 请 to tell you to bring an umbrella. This page reads a short broadcast forecast for several cities and decodes the machinery.

The forecast

Grammar in this text

1. 有 for whatever is in the sky

The core weather pattern is disarmingly simple: 有 + weather noun. Chinese does not say "it rains" with a verb the way English does; it says there exists rain — 有雨 — as if the sky were a place holding things. So 有微风 ("there's a light breeze"), 有小雨 ("there's light rain"), 有雷阵雨 ("there are thunderstorms"), 有大雨 ("there's heavy rain"). There is no dummy "it" subject; the location (北京, 沿海地区) or a time word sits up front, and 有 presents what the weather holds. This is the same existential 有 you use for "there is / there are." See existential 有.

2. Temperatures: 度, 最高/最低气温, and the …到… range

Temperature is measured in 度 (dù, degrees), and the forecast frames it with a fixed pair: 最高气温 (the high) and 最低气温 (the low). To give a range, Chinese uses the coverb 到 (dào, "to") between the two numbers: 二十四到二十九度 = "from twenty-four to twenty-nine degrees" — note that 度 is stated only once, at the end. This same 到 marks any span, of temperature, time, or distance. See decimals and precise numbers and the coverb 到 'to'.

3. 转 — turning from one state into another

The verb 转 (zhuǎn, "to turn / shift into") is pure forecast vocabulary. It links two weather states in the order they occur: 多云转晴 = "cloudy turning to clear"; 天气会转好 = "the weather will turn better"; 天气转凉 = "the weather turns cool." 转 always points from the earlier condition to the later one, so 多云转晴 and 晴转多云 are opposite predictions. It is compact and slightly literary — you will rarely hear 转 for weather in casual speech, but it is everywhere in the forecast.

4. 会…的 — the forecast's "will"

A forecast is a prediction, and the modal for prediction is 会 (huì) — "will / is likely to." 天气会转好 = "the weather will improve," a confident forecast rather than a bare fact. In fuller speech 会 often pairs with a sentence-final 的 (会…的) to underline the speaker's certainty — 天气会好起来的 ("the weather will get better, you'll see"). In the terse register of a broadcast the 的 is usually dropped, but recognizing the 会…的 frame helps you hear the difference between reporting the weather and predicting it. See 会 for ability and likelihood and 的 for certainty.

5. 比 comparisons and formal 书面语 flavor

The forecast slips in a comparison — 比昨天热一点 ("a little warmer than yesterday") — using the standard 比 pattern: A 比 B + adjective + amount. The degree of difference (一点, "a bit") comes after the adjective, never before it. See comparison with 比.

Everything else about the passage screams formal register: the honorific opener 各位听众 ("esteemed listeners"), the impersonal 受…影响 ("affected by…"), the clipped 较大 ("fairly large," where 较 is the written cousin of 比较), 预计 ("it is forecast"), 以上 ("the above"), and the polite imperatives 请大家…, 请注意…. This is the compressed, agentless style shared by news broadcasts and official notices — the same voice you meet in the news snippet. See also news-headline style.

Vocabulary

Key Takeaways

• Weather uses 有 + noun (有雨, 有风), not an "it" subject; a bare adjective (晴, 冷) works too.
• Temperatures take 度, framed by 最高气温 / 最低气温, with …到… for a range (二十四到二十九度), 度 stated once.
• 转 links weather states in order (多云转晴 = cloudy → clear); reverse the order and you reverse the prediction.
• 会 is the forecast's "will" (会转好); in full speech it pairs with 的 (会…的) for certainty.
• Forecasts live in 书面语: 各位听众, 受…影响, 较, 预计, 以上, and polite 请大家… — the same compressed register as the news.