Talking about the weather in Dutch: words, forecasts and small talk
Learn Dutch weather words and phrases, from het regent and het miezert to forecast language, easy small-talk lines and idioms like het regent pijpenstelen.
In the Netherlands, the weather is always a safe topic. It changes quickly, it rains a lot, and everybody has an opinion about it. A comment about the weather is the perfect way to start a chat with a neighbour, a colleague or the person next to you at the bus stop. This guide gives you the words, the grammar trick behind them, and the phrases people really use.
Het as the subject: it rains, it freezes
Like English, Dutch uses a "dummy" subject for the weather: het. It doesn't refer to anything; it's just there because every Dutch sentence needs a subject.
- Het regent. — It's raining.
- Het is koud. — It's cold.
- Het wordt warm. — It's getting warm.
Many weather words are verbs in Dutch, where English uses "it's" + adjective or a noun. Het waait literally means "it blows", and het onweert means "it thunderstorms".
In the perfect tense, weather verbs take hebben:
- Het heeft de hele nacht geregend. — It rained all night.
- Het heeft gisteren gevroren. — It froze yesterday.
Watch out: to say that you are cold or warm, use Ik heb het koud or Ik heb het warm, never ik ben. Wrong: Ik ben koud. That would describe your personality or body temperature, not how you feel.
Weather verbs and adjectives
| Dutch | English |
|---|---|
| Het regent. | It's raining. |
| Het miezert. | It's drizzling. |
| Het giet. | It's pouring. |
| Het sneeuwt. | It's snowing. |
| Het hagelt. | It's hailing. |
| Het vriest. | It's freezing. |
| Het waait. | It's windy. |
| Het onweert. | There's a thunderstorm. |
| Het is zonnig. | It's sunny. |
| Het is bewolkt. | It's cloudy. |
| Het is mistig. | It's foggy. |
| Het is benauwd. | It's muggy, close. |
| Het is fris. | It's chilly. |
| Het is glad. | It's slippery (icy roads). |
Benauwd is a very useful word for those warm, humid days before a thunderstorm, when the air feels heavy. It can also mean "short of breath" or "stuffy", as in a crowded room.
For temperatures, use graden (degrees). Below zero, Dutch often uses vriezen:
- Het is vijftien graden. — It's fifteen degrees.
- Het vriest drie graden. — It's three degrees below zero.
Useful weather nouns
All of these are de words, which makes life easy.
- de regen — rain
- de zon — sun
- de wind — wind
- de sneeuw — snow
- de wolk — cloud
- de bui — shower (of rain)
- de onweersbui — thunderstorm
- de opklaring — sunny spell, bright interval
- de storm — storm
- de hittegolf — heatwave
- de temperatuur — temperature
Buien and opklaringen are a classic Dutch pair: showers with bright spells in between. That describes a large part of the Dutch year.
The weather itself is het weer: Wat voor weer is het? — What's the weather like?
Forecast language
Dutch weather forecasts, on TV, the radio or the weather app, use a fairly fixed set of phrases. Once you know them, you'll understand most forecasts.
- Morgen wordt het zonnig. — Tomorrow it will be sunny.
- Het wordt twintig graden. — It will be twenty degrees.
- Er is kans op regen. — There's a chance of rain.
- De kans op onweer is klein. — The chance of thunderstorms is small.
- Het blijft droog. — It will stay dry.
- In de loop van de middag trekken de buien weg. — In the course of the afternoon the showers will clear.
- Er staat een harde wind. — There's a strong wind.
- Het wordt kouder. — It's getting colder.
Notice that wordt + adjective is the standard way to talk about the coming weather. Wordt already points to the future, so you don't need zullen. See the future tense for more on this.
Many Dutch people check a rain radar app before cycling anywhere, to see exactly when the next bui arrives. You'll also hear about code geel, code oranje or code rood, the official weather warnings for yellow, orange and red alerts.
Small talk lines
These short sentences will carry you through most weather chats. The little word hè at the end works like "isn't it?"
- Lekker weertje, hè? — Nice weather, isn't it?
- Wat een weer! — What weather! (good or bad, the tone tells you)
- Wat is het koud vandaag! — It's so cold today!
- Het is fris, hè? — It's chilly, isn't it?
- Wat een rotweer. — What awful weather.
- Ik ben helemaal natgeregend. — I got completely soaked in the rain.
- Gelukkig is het droog. — Luckily it's dry.
- Zou het nog gaan regenen? — Do you think it'll rain?
- Het zal wel opklaren. — It'll probably clear up.
The word lekker is everywhere in weather talk. It isn't just for food: lekker weer is pleasant weather, and Het is lekker buiten. means it's nice outside. For more conversation starters, see Dutch greetings and small talk.
Weather idioms
The Dutch have plenty of weather expressions. Here are some you'll actually hear:
- Het regent pijpenstelen. — It's raining cats and dogs. (Literally: it's raining pipe stems.)
- Na regen komt zonneschijn. — After rain comes sunshine; things will get better.
- Een storm in een glas water. — A storm in a teacup.
- Er is geen wolkje aan de lucht. — There's not a cloud in the sky; everything is going fine.
- April doet wat hij wil. — April does what it wants. (The weather in April is unpredictable.)
- Mooi weer spelen. — To act friendly, often to get something.
For many more, have a look at Dutch idioms.
Quick summary
- Use het as the subject: het regent, het waait, het vriest, het is koud.
- Weather verbs take hebben in the perfect: Het heeft geregend.
- To say you feel cold: Ik heb het koud, never ik ben.
- Benauwd = muggy; miezeren = drizzle; buien and opklaringen = showers and bright spells.
- Forecasts use wordt + adjective and kans op: Morgen wordt het warm. Er is kans op regen.
- Start a chat with Lekker weertje, hè?
- Het regent pijpenstelen — it's raining cats and dogs.
Practise it
Learn the basics in The weather, talk about the outdoors in Nature, and connect the weather to the seasons in Months and seasons.