The Vocab Man - Fluent Vocabulary 72 Raining cats and dogs
Nov 21, 2021
The podcast discusses the idiom 'raining cats and dogs' and its lesser usage among native English speakers. They suggest the alternative expression 'bucketing down' for heavy rainfall. The hosts share their own experiences as English learners and reflect on self-confidence and taking small steps towards goals.
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The Usage of 'Raining Cats and Dogs'
00:00 • 2min
The Idiom 'Raining Cats and Dogs' and Self-Confidence
01:39 • 2min
What is your favorite expression? For more info see the link below!
https://www.videoask.com/fwegskglw
Transcript:
Link to the video version with transcripts in it: https://youtu.be/VhtlJCmLBBQ
Forget raining cats and dogs in Guam. It's raining mice.
Omar. Do you have a favorite expression or an idiom in English? That is good question. idiom idiom like that. I could say for example I live in Ecuador and it's close to the mountains. The place that I live in and unusually it is raining. And when the people asking me, Hello Omar, what is the weather in your country?
I usually say here it is raining cats and dogs, cats and dogs. It's like a, it is a bad day it is only raining. So this was a very short clip from an interview that I conducted with Omar, a very motivated English learner. You can listen to the whole interview on my other show called my fluent podcast. And it's episode 97.
You can say it's raining cats and dogs. Although in reality, we don't actually use that idiom that much, but it seems to be the first idiom that anyone ever learns. You can also say to bucket down, if it's bucketing down with rain, it's raining really hard.
01:18
To be honest, I am also an English learner who learned that idiom on a very early stage.
Right. But apparently these (that!) Idiom is not used that much by native speakers. Well, at least I stumbled upon various videos in which native speaker told us so. Would you ever say it's raining cats and dogs? Have you ever said that in real life? I have said that, but only as a joke. Yeah, because when I was a kid, this is kind of like one of the first idioms that English learners learn, but I feel like native speakers
never or hardly ever used that to describe weather like that. You might get a smile. If you said it's raining cats and dogs outside, people might like a little joke maybe(they might laught a little bit). That's the only context when you'll actually hear people use that in real life is just as a little joke. Well I think that the idiom might be just a little bit old fashioned, but at least I could find it in a film in a movie.
From 1999 with the name Magnolia, which is an amazing movie, by the way. And Tom cruise is playing as well as an actor there. Is that all right? Just raining cats and dogs.
Yeah. And in this scene, by the way, it was not raining cats and dogs but in fact, frogs. So I'd rather say it's raining like hell or something like that. So I hope you liked this episode and I hope that you could learn something.
Bye.
Sometimes we don't feel confident with our level. Sometimes we don't have time. Sometimes we think that we don't have money for learning English, but more of them are only excuses. Like was my case, say, okay, Omar, you don't have time. You don't have money. Your English is not good. But when you really want to do something in your life, not only learn English, you could do it.
Only put a deadline and start doing. Of course at the beginning it will be difficult, but you need to do a step by step. So that is the most important.
Link to the full interview with Omar:
Youtube
https://youtu.be/q_weV6Z5jzM
Podcast: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/myfluentpodcast/Omar_from_Masters_Of_English_-_Zoom_Meetings.mp3
https://www.videoask.com/fwegskglw
Transcript:
Link to the video version with transcripts in it: https://youtu.be/VhtlJCmLBBQ
Forget raining cats and dogs in Guam. It's raining mice.
Omar. Do you have a favorite expression or an idiom in English? That is good question. idiom idiom like that. I could say for example I live in Ecuador and it's close to the mountains. The place that I live in and unusually it is raining. And when the people asking me, Hello Omar, what is the weather in your country?
I usually say here it is raining cats and dogs, cats and dogs. It's like a, it is a bad day it is only raining. So this was a very short clip from an interview that I conducted with Omar, a very motivated English learner. You can listen to the whole interview on my other show called my fluent podcast. And it's episode 97.
You can say it's raining cats and dogs. Although in reality, we don't actually use that idiom that much, but it seems to be the first idiom that anyone ever learns. You can also say to bucket down, if it's bucketing down with rain, it's raining really hard.
01:18
To be honest, I am also an English learner who learned that idiom on a very early stage.
Right. But apparently these (that!) Idiom is not used that much by native speakers. Well, at least I stumbled upon various videos in which native speaker told us so. Would you ever say it's raining cats and dogs? Have you ever said that in real life? I have said that, but only as a joke. Yeah, because when I was a kid, this is kind of like one of the first idioms that English learners learn, but I feel like native speakers
never or hardly ever used that to describe weather like that. You might get a smile. If you said it's raining cats and dogs outside, people might like a little joke maybe(they might laught a little bit). That's the only context when you'll actually hear people use that in real life is just as a little joke. Well I think that the idiom might be just a little bit old fashioned, but at least I could find it in a film in a movie.
From 1999 with the name Magnolia, which is an amazing movie, by the way. And Tom cruise is playing as well as an actor there. Is that all right? Just raining cats and dogs.
Yeah. And in this scene, by the way, it was not raining cats and dogs but in fact, frogs. So I'd rather say it's raining like hell or something like that. So I hope you liked this episode and I hope that you could learn something.
Bye.
Sometimes we don't feel confident with our level. Sometimes we don't have time. Sometimes we think that we don't have money for learning English, but more of them are only excuses. Like was my case, say, okay, Omar, you don't have time. You don't have money. Your English is not good. But when you really want to do something in your life, not only learn English, you could do it.
Only put a deadline and start doing. Of course at the beginning it will be difficult, but you need to do a step by step. So that is the most important.
Link to the full interview with Omar:
Youtube
https://youtu.be/q_weV6Z5jzM
Podcast: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/myfluentpodcast/Omar_from_Masters_Of_English_-_Zoom_Meetings.mp3