Il tempo è brutto oggi.

Here it means weather.

In Italian, tempo can mean both:

• time
• weather

So context is very important. In Il tempo è brutto oggi, the adjective brutto and the overall sentence make it clear that tempo means weather, not time.

A native English speaker may expect a separate word for weather, but Italian often uses tempo in this sense.

Italian often uses the definite article where English does not.

So:

• Il tempo è brutto oggi = The weather is bad today

Even though English often talks about weather without thinking much about the article, in Italian il is normal here because tempo is a masculine singular noun.

You will often see articles in Italian with general statements:

• Il cane è fedele = The dog is loyal / Dogs are loyal
• La vita è bella = Life is beautiful
• Il tempo è brutto = The weather is bad

È is the third-person singular form of essere, which means to be.

So:

• io sono = I am
• tu sei = you are
• lui/lei è = he/she is

In this sentence, il tempo is singular, so Italian uses è:

• Il tempo è brutto oggi = The weather is bad today

The accent is important.

• è = is
• e = and

So the accent distinguishes two different words.

Examples:

• Il tempo è brutto = The weather is bad
• sole e vento = sun and wind

In correct written Italian, you should write è with the accent.

Yes, brutto can mean ugly, but it also has a broader meaning: bad, unpleasant, awful, depending on context.

With weather, brutto usually means:

• bad
• nasty
• unpleasant

So Il tempo è brutto means The weather is bad, not that the weather is literally ugly in a visual sense.

Italian adjectives often cover a wider range than a single English word.

Because tempo is masculine singular, the adjective must agree with it.

Agreement in Italian means the adjective changes form to match the noun.

Here:

• tempo = masculine singular
• so the adjective is brutto = masculine singular

Compare:

• Il tempo è brutto = masculine singular
• La giornata è brutta = feminine singular
• I giorni sono brutti = masculine plural
• Le giornate sono brutte = feminine plural

This is a very important pattern in Italian.

Putting oggi at the end is completely natural in Italian.

• Il tempo è brutto oggi = The weather is bad today

But Italian word order is often more flexible than English. You can also say:

• Oggi il tempo è brutto

Both are correct. The difference is mainly one of emphasis:

• Il tempo è brutto oggi: neutral, with today added at the end
• Oggi il tempo è brutto: puts more focus on today

Yes, absolutely.

That version is very common and natural. Italian allows this kind of movement more easily than English.

Compare:

• Il tempo è brutto oggi
• Oggi il tempo è brutto

Both mean the same thing. The second version emphasizes today a bit more, or simply starts with the time expression, which is very common in Italian.

Yes. Another very common way is:

• Oggi fa brutto tempo

Literally, this is something like Today it makes bad weather, but the natural English meaning is still The weather is bad today.

So you may hear both:

• Il tempo è brutto oggi
• Oggi fa brutto tempo

Both are correct and natural. The first is very straightforward. The second is especially common in everyday speech.

Usually, that would sound incomplete unless the context already makes it very clear you are talking about the weather.

Italian does allow subjects to be omitted in many sentences, but here il tempo is not just a grammatical subject like it in English. It is the actual noun weather.

So:

• Il tempo è brutto oggi = clear and natural
• È brutto oggi = could be understood in context, but by itself it is vague

A learner should normally keep il tempo.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

eel TEM-po eh BROOT-toh OD-jee

A few useful points:

• Il sounds roughly like eel
• tempo has stress on the first syllable: TEM-po
• è is pronounced like eh
• brutto has a double tt, so the consonant is held a little longer than in English
• oggi sounds roughly like OD-jee, with stress on the first syllable

If you want to sound more natural, try not to make it too flat. Italian has a clear rhythm and strong syllable stress.

English usually says:

• It is bad today
• It is raining
• It is cold

That it is often just a dummy subject; it does not refer to a real thing.

Italian works differently. Instead of using a dummy it in this sentence, Italian often names the thing directly:

• Il tempo è brutto = The weather is bad

In other weather expressions, Italian may use special verbs instead:

• Piove = It is raining
• Nevica = It is snowing

So Italian does not always need an equivalent of English weather it.