This is your conversational toolkit for talking about the weather — the small-talk staple of any culture. Where the annotated weather forecast teaches the formal voi-future and the impersonal se of broadcast bulletins, this page gives you the everyday phrases you'd actually use looking out the window with a friend. The one structural rule that governs all of it, and that English speakers must internalize early, is that weather in Romanian has no subject — there is no equivalent of the dummy "it" in "it's raining."
The big rule: weather is subjectless
English needs a placeholder subject for weather: "It's raining," "It's cold." That "it" refers to nothing — it exists only because an English sentence demands a subject. Romanian has no such requirement, so the verb or copula simply stands alone:
Plouă.
It's raining. (one word — no subject)
E frig afară, ia-ți o geacă.
It's cold outside, take a jacket.
There is no Romanian word that translates that English "it" here, and inserting a pronoun (el plouă, aceasta e frig) is a clear error — it sounds as if some male person is doing the raining. Strike the "it" entirely and start with the verb.
Impersonal weather verbs
A small set of verbs describe precipitation and sky events. They exist only in the 3rd-person singular — they have no "I" or "you" form, because no person performs them.
| Romanian (present) | English | Past |
|---|---|---|
| plouă | it's raining / it rains | a plouat |
| ninge | it's snowing | a nins |
| tună | it's thundering | a tunat |
| fulgeră | there's lightning | a fulgerat |
| burnițează | it's drizzling | a burnițat |
| se înnorează | it's clouding over | s-a înnorat |
| se înseninează | it's clearing up | s-a înseninat |
Plouă de azi-dimineață și nu se mai oprește.
It's been raining since this morning and it won't stop.
Ia umbrela, cred că o să plouă.
Take the umbrella, I think it's going to rain.
A nins toată noaptea, totul e alb afară.
It snowed all night, everything's white outside.
E + adjective / noun: describing conditions
For temperature, sun, wind, and general conditions, Romanian uses bare e ("is") followed by an adjective or noun. Again, no subject:
| Romanian | English |
|---|---|
| E frig. | It's cold. |
| E cald. | It's warm / hot. |
| E soare. | It's sunny. (lit. "is sun") |
| E vânt. | It's windy. (lit. "is wind") |
| E senin. | It's clear (sky). |
| E înnorat. | It's cloudy / overcast. |
| E ceață. | It's foggy. (lit. "is fog") |
| E umezeală. | It's damp / humid. |
| E zăpușeală. | It's sweltering / muggy. |
E soare, dar bate un vânt rece.
It's sunny, but a cold wind is blowing.
E senin azi, ar fi păcat să stăm în casă.
It's clear today, it'd be a shame to stay indoors.
Notice that several of these are nouns, not adjectives: soare (sun), vânt (wind), ceață (fog). Romanian says literally "is sun," "is wind" — you cannot translate "it's sunny" with an adjective; you say e soare.
A face: when the weather turns
To express a change in conditions, Romanian uses a se face ("to become") impersonally — "it's getting / it's turning":
Afară se face frig, hai să intrăm.
It's getting cold outside, let's go in.
Spre seară s-a făcut răcoare.
Towards evening it turned cool.
This is the natural way to say "it's getting cold / warm" — present se face, past s-a făcut. A bare devine frig sounds bookish.
The seasons
| Romanian | English | "in [season]" |
|---|---|---|
| primăvara | spring | primăvara |
| vara | summer | vara |
| toamna | autumn / fall | toamna |
| iarna | winter | iarna |
A useful quirk: the season noun with its definite article (vara, iarna) doubles as the adverb "in summer / in winter" — no preposition needed.
Iarna ninge mult la munte, vara e plăcut și răcoare.
In winter it snows a lot in the mountains; in summer it's pleasant and cool.
Vivid idioms
Romanian weather talk is rich in imagery. These are common and very natural in everyday speech.
| Romanian | Literal | English | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| plouă cu găleata | it's raining with the bucket | it's pouring | informal |
| plouă mărunt | it's raining finely | it's drizzling | neutral |
| ger de crapă pietrele | frost that splits the stones | it's bitterly freezing | informal |
| o căldură de te topești | a heat that melts you | it's scorching | informal |
| e o vreme de câini | it's a dogs' weather | it's foul weather | informal |
| s-a pornit o ploaie | a rain has started up | the rain set in | neutral |
Nu ieși acum, plouă cu găleata!
Don't go out now, it's pouring!
Afară e ger de crapă pietrele, îmbracă-te gros.
It's bitterly freezing out, dress warmly.
A fost o căldură de te topești toată săptămâna.
It was scorching hot all week.
Common Mistakes
The number-one error is inserting a subject pronoun for the English "it":
❌ El plouă.
Wrong — weather is subjectless; 'el plouă' sounds like a man is raining. Just say Plouă.
✅ Plouă.
It's raining.
❌ Aceasta este frig.
Wrong — no subject for ambient cold; say E frig.
✅ E frig.
It's cold.
Treating sun/wind as adjectives instead of the nouns Romanian uses:
❌ E însorit afară. (overly literal 'it's sunny')
Stilted — the everyday phrase is E soare.
✅ E soare afară.
It's sunny outside.
Confusing personal cold with ambient cold by adding (or dropping) the dative clitic:
❌ Sunt frig. (meaning 'I'm cold')
Wrong — frig is a noun; for the personal sensation say Mi-e frig, and for the weather E frig.
✅ Mi-e frig. / E frig afară.
I'm cold. / It's cold outside.
Using a bare devine for "it's getting cold" instead of the idiomatic se face:
❌ Devine frig afară.
Bookish — natural Romanian is Se face frig afară.
✅ Se face frig afară.
It's getting cold outside.
Key Takeaways
- Weather takes no subject pronoun — Plouă, Ninge, E frig. The English "it" has no Romanian equivalent.
- Precipitation verbs (plouă, ninge, tună, fulgeră) exist only in the impersonal 3rd singular.
- Conditions use bare e
- adjective or noun: E soare, E vânt, E ceață — sun, wind, and fog are nouns, not adjectives.
- Use se face / s-a făcut for a change ("it's getting cold"); season nouns (vara, iarna) double as "in summer / in winter."
- Keep E frig (the weather) apart from Mi-e frig (your own body); the dative clitic decides.
Now practice Romanian
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Annotated Weather ForecastB1 — An original Romanian weather forecast annotated for meteorological grammar — impersonal weather verbs (va ploua, va ninge), the formal voi-future (vor fi temperaturi scăzute), the se-passive and impersonal se (se vor înregistra, se anunță), the number-plus-de rule for temperatures (de până la 20 de grade), and the meteo vocabulary of forecasts.
- Time Expressions (acum, îndată, din când în când)A2 — A practical inventory of the time phrases Romanians actually use — now, ago, right away, usually, suddenly, in advance, in an hour — including the trap that acum means 'now' alone but 'ago' with a duration, and that peste flips a phrase into the future.
- a fi vs a avea for States (E frig / Mi-e frig / Am dreptate)A2 — How Romanian expresses physical sensations and states — bodily feelings use a fi + a dative clitic (Mi-e frig, Mi-e foame), ambient conditions use bare a fi (E frig afară), and a few states like 'be right' and 'need' use a avea (Am dreptate, Am nevoie).
- Conversational Fillers and Hesitations (deci, păi, gen, mă rog)B1 — The practical spoken inventory of Romanian fillers — păi (well…), deci (so…), adică (I mean), știi (you know), cum să zic (how to put it), nu? (right?), gen (like, slang), în fine and mă rog (anyway/whatever). What each one does to the conversation, with dialogue examples, plus a warning about over-relying on deci and gen.
- Telling Dates and TimeA2 — Dates use plain cardinals plus a month (pe 5 martie) — except the 1st, which is the special ordinal 'întâi'; clock time uses 'și' for minutes past the hour (trei și zece) and 'fără' ('without') for minutes to the hour (patru fără cinci).