Weather is the universal small-talk topic, and in Turkish it is built on one structural fact that trips up every English speaker: there is no dummy "it." English forces a subject onto a subjectless event — "it is raining," "it's cold" — even though there is nothing the "it" actually refers to. Turkish does not. It says the rain itself does the raining (yağmur yağıyor, literally "rain is falling"), or it makes a bare adjective the whole sentence (Hava soğuk, "the weather (is) cold"). Once you stop hunting for a word to put where English's "it" goes, weather sentences become short and natural.
Asking about the weather
The all-purpose question uses hava ("air, weather") and the question word nasıl ("how"):
Bugün hava nasıl?
How's the weather today?
Dışarıda hava nasıl, soğuk mu?
What's the weather like outside — is it cold?
hava is the key noun: it means both "air" and "weather," and it is the subject of most weather sentences. The answer is usually a bare adjective predicate (next section) or a "rain/snow falls" verb.
Bare adjective predicates: Hava sıcak
The simplest weather statements are zero-copula adjective predicates — the same structure you met in talking about yourself and predicative adjectives. You put hava with an adjective, and there is no verb at all: the adjective is the predicate.
Hava çok sıcak, klimayı açalım.
It's really hot — let's turn on the AC.
Bugün hava soğuk, montunu giy.
It's cold today — put your coat on.
Hava çok güzel, hadi parka gidelim.
The weather's lovely — come on, let's go to the park.
There is no "it is" to insert. Hava soğuk is, word for word, "weather cold" — and that is a complete sentence. The common weather adjectives:
| Turkish | Meaning |
|---|---|
| sıcak | hot |
| soğuk | cold |
| ılık | warm, mild |
| serin | cool |
| güzel | nice, lovely |
| kapalı | overcast, cloudy ("closed") |
| açık | clear ("open") |
| rüzgârlı | windy |
| nemli | humid |
| bulutlu | cloudy |
Note kapalı ("closed") for an overcast sky and açık ("open") for a clear one — Turkish pictures the sky as shut or open. And rüzgârlı ("windy") carries a circumflex on the â.
The yağmak pattern: yağmur yağıyor
This is the pattern English speakers find strangest. Rain and snow are expressed with a noun + the verb yağmak ("to fall, of precipitation"). The noun is the subject and does the falling. So "it's raining" is yağmur yağıyor — literally "rain is falling / rain rains," with yağmur ("rain") as the grammatical subject of yağmak.
Yağmur yağıyor, şemsiyeni al.
It's raining — take your umbrella.
Dün gece kar yağdı, her yer bembeyaz.
It snowed last night — everywhere's bright white.
Dolu yağıyor, arabayı içeri çekelim.
It's hailing — let's pull the car inside.
The same verb covers all falling weather: yağmur yağıyor (rain), kar yağıyor (snow), dolu yağıyor (hail). Get the spelling of yağmak exactly: the ğ between two vowels (ya-ğ-mak, ya-ğ-mur, ya-ğı-yor) is silent and lengthens the preceding a. It is never spelled with a plain g. The present-continuous yağıyor uses the -(I)yor ending you know from the present continuous; the past yağdı reports a completed fall.
Sun, wind, and other weather verbs
The sun gets its own verb, açmak ("to open/come out"): güneş açtı ("the sun came out"). You can also just say güneşli ("sunny") as a bare adjective. Wind "blows" with esmek.
Sabah yağmurluydu ama öğleden sonra güneş açtı.
It was rainy in the morning, but the sun came out in the afternoon.
Bugün hava güneşli, hadi sahile gidelim.
It's sunny today — come on, let's go to the beach.
Çok sert bir rüzgâr esiyor, şapkanı tut.
A really strong wind is blowing — hold onto your hat.
So the sky's actors each take a fitting verb: rain and snow yağmak (fall), the sun açmak (open out), the wind esmek (blow). The -lI adjectives (yağmurlu "rainy," güneşli "sunny," karlı "snowy") are an easy alternative when you want a bare description rather than an action.
Temperature: kaç derece?
To ask or state the temperature, use derece ("degree"). The number stays before derece, and — as with all counted nouns — derece stays singular, never dereceler.
Bugün hava kaç derece?
How many degrees is it today?
Dışarıda eksi beş derece, dondurucu soğuk.
It's minus five outside — freezing cold.
eksi is "minus" for sub-zero temperatures, artı "plus." Useful expressions of degree: dondurucu soğuk ("freezing cold," literally "freezing cold"), bunaltıcı sıcak ("stifling hot"), iliklere işleyen soğuk ("bone-chilling cold").
The seasons and a weather chat
The four seasons are ilkbahar (spring), yaz (summer), sonbahar (autumn), and kış (winter); bahar alone is the general "spring(time)." To say "in winter / in summer," the everyday forms are the frozen adverbials kışın ("in winter") and yazın ("in summer") — these carry an old adverbial -ın, not the regular locative. You can also spell it out with the locative on mevsim ("season"): kış mevsiminde ("in the winter season").
Kışın çok kar yağar, yazın ise hava bunaltıcı olur.
In winter it snows a lot, while in summer it gets stiflingly hot.
Here is a natural weather exchange tying the pieces together:
— Bugün hava nasıl? — Sabah yağmur yağıyordu ama şimdi güneş açtı. Hava biraz serin, on iki derece falan. — Güzel, o zaman yürüyüşe çıkalım.
— How's the weather today? — It was raining this morning, but now the sun's come out. It's a bit cool, around twelve degrees. — Nice, let's go for a walk then.
Notice there is not a single "it" in the Turkish: yağmur yağıyordu (rain was falling), güneş açtı (the sun opened out), hava serin (the weather (is) cool). Every English "it" has simply vanished.
Common mistakes
❌ O yağmur yağıyor.
Wrong — no dummy subject 'o' (it); 'yağmur' is already the subject. Just: Yağmur yağıyor.
✅ Yağmur yağıyor.
It's raining.
❌ Hava soğuk dır.
Over-marked — a bare adjective predicate needs no copula here; just: Hava soğuk.
✅ Hava soğuk.
It's cold.
❌ Yamur yagıyor.
Spelling — both words need the ğ: yağmur, yağıyor (never plain g).
✅ Yağmur yağıyor.
It's raining.
❌ Bugün on beş dereceler.
Wrong — 'derece' stays singular after a number: on beş derece.
✅ Bugün on beş derece.
It's fifteen degrees today.
The first mistake is the heart of this page: English speakers feel a sentence needs a subject and reach for o ("it") in front of yağmur yağıyor — but yağmur is the subject. The second comes from translating "it is cold" too literally and adding a copula where a bare adjective suffices. The third is the ğ trap, and the fourth is the universal singular-after-numbers rule.
Key takeaways
- Turkish has no dummy "it" for weather: there is nothing where English puts "it."
- Ask with Hava nasıl? ("How's the weather?").
- Many weather statements are bare adjective predicates: Hava soğuk / sıcak / güzel — no verb.
- Rain, snow, and hail use noun + yağmak ("to fall"): yağmur yağıyor, kar yağdı, dolu yağıyor — the precipitation is the subject. Watch the ğ (yağmur, yağıyor).
- The sun açar ("comes out": güneş açtı), the wind eser ("blows"); -lI adjectives (güneşli, yağmurlu) describe rather than narrate.
- Temperature: kaç derece?, with derece singular after the number; eksi for below zero.
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