امروز باران نمی آید، اما هوا ابری است.

امروز means today, and Persian very often puts time expressions near the beginning of the sentence.

So:

• امروز = today
• then the rest of the sentence tells you what is happening today

This is very natural in Persian, just as in English you might say Today, it isn’t raining...

You could sometimes move it, but sentence-initial position is extremely common.

Persian usually does not use a dummy subject like English it in weather expressions.

English says:

• It is raining
• It is cloudy

But Persian often just says the weather expression directly, without a subject pronoun. So instead of needing an it, Persian uses forms like:

• باران می‌آید = it is raining / rain is coming
• هوا ابری است = the weather is cloudy

This is normal Persian grammar.

This is an idiomatic way to talk about rain in Persian.

• باران = rain
• می‌آید = comes / is coming

Together, باران می‌آید means it is raining or rain is falling.

Languages often describe weather differently. English uses rain as a verb in it rains, but Persian commonly uses آمدن (to come) with باران.

You may also hear باران می‌بارد, which is more literally rain falls. Both are used, but باران می‌آید is very common in everyday speech.

نمی‌آید is the negative present form of می‌آید.

Breakdown:

• می = marks the imperfective/present ongoing-habitual sense
• ن = negation
• together نمی = does not / is not
• آید here is the present stem form used in آمدن conjugation
• نمی‌آید = does not come / is not coming

So:

• باران می‌آید = it is raining
• باران نمی‌آید = it is not raining

In standard writing, this is ideally written with a half-space as نمی‌آید.

The most standard modern spelling uses a half-space (also called a zero-width non-joiner), so:

• نمی‌آید is the preferred formal spelling

But many people type it with a regular space:

• نمی آید

Both are very common in real life, especially online or in casual typing. As a learner, you should recognize both as the same word.

The same thing happens with many Persian verb forms using می and نمی.

اما means but / however.

In this sentence, it connects two contrasting ideas:

• it isn’t raining
• but the weather is cloudy

اما and ولی often mean almost the same thing in everyday Persian.

Very roughly:

• اما can sound a bit more written or formal
• ولی is extremely common in speech

In most basic contexts, both can be translated as but.

Yes, هوا can mean air, but it also very commonly means weather depending on context.

So in:

• هوا ابری است

the meaning is the weather is cloudy, not just the air is cloudy.

This is a very common Persian way to talk about weather:

• هوا خوب است = the weather is good
• هوا گرم است = the weather is warm
• هوا سرد است = the weather is cold

ابری means cloudy.

It comes from:

• ابر = cloud
• ی = a suffix that helps form an adjective here

So:

• ابر = cloud
• ابری = cloudy / cloud-covered

In the sentence, ابری is a predicate adjective describing هوا:

• هوا ابری است = the weather is cloudy

است is the 3rd person singular form of to be: is.

Persian commonly puts the copula at the end of the clause:

• هوا ابری است
• literally: weather cloudy is

This is normal Persian word order.

English says:

• The weather is cloudy

Persian says:

• The weather cloudy is

So the final است is exactly where you should expect it in a formal full sentence.

Yes, very often.

In colloquial Persian, people commonly drop است or replace it with a shorter spoken form. So you may hear:

• هوا ابریه
• or even a reduced spoken version depending on accent and style

But in standard written Persian, هوا ابری است is perfectly correct and clear.

So as a learner:

• ابری است = standard written style
• ابریه = common spoken style

Persian does not have a definite article like English the.

So هوا can mean:

• air
• the air
• weather
• the weather

The exact meaning comes from context.

In this sentence, هوا is understood as the weather because that is the natural interpretation.

A simple way to see it is:

• امروز = time expression
• باران نمی‌آید = first clause
• اما = connector
• هوا ابری است = second clause

So the structure is roughly:

• Today + [rain not-comes] + but + [weather cloudy is]

This shows a common Persian pattern:

• time often comes early
• the verb usually comes late in the clause
• adjectives used with to be come before است

That is why the sentence feels different from English word order, even though the meaning is straightforward.

A careful pronunciation would be close to:

• emruz bârân nemi-âyad, ammâ havâ abrî ast

A few helpful notes:

• آ is a long â sound, like in bârân
• خ does not appear in this sentence, so there is no harsh kh sound here
• ع in می‌آید usually does not create a strong consonant sound for most learners; focus more on the vowel flow
• in natural speech, است may sound reduced

A more conversational pronunciation might sound closer to:

• emruz bârûn نمیاد، ammâ havâ abrie

depending on accent and level of formality.