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This is a little bit confusing.

rainy (adj): having or bringing a lot of rain

a rainy day

the rainy season

the rainiest place in Britain


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rain‧y /ˈreɪni/ ●●● S3 adjective

1 a rainy period of time is one when it rains a lot SYN wet

a cold rainy day in October

I hate rainy weather.

the rainy season


rain [intransitive] when it rains, water falls from the sky in drops

Is it raining?

It had been raining hard all night.

It hardly rained at all last summer.

It started to rain.


So, it seems like "it is rainy now" means "it is raining a lot now".

Ok, let say, we look out through the window, and the rain is falling from the sky, and the rain is light not too heavy or a lot. In this situation, do we say

"It is rainy now" or "it is raining now"?

And in the case that the rain is falling heavily or a lot outside. do we say

"It is rainy now" or "it is raining a lot now"?

Also, we have the adjective "sunny" but we have no verb equivalent to it.

sun‧ny /ˈsʌni/ ●●● S3 adjective

1 having a lot of light from the sun SYN bright

a warm sunny day

a sunny morning

a nice sunny room

I hope it’s sunny tomorrow.

sunny periods/spells/intervals (=periods when it is sunny)

Tuesday will be dry with sunny spells.


Ok, let say, we look out through the window, and it has some light from the sun but not a lot. In that situation, do we say

"it is sunny now" or "it has sun light now"?

In the case that it has a lot of sun light outside. Do we say

"it is sunny now" or "it has a lot of sun light now"?

Finally, Are “It is rainy now” and “it is raining now” the same? Also what is the verb equivalent to the adjective “sunny”?

Note: Some says

"It's raining now" is more common, but both "It's raining now" & "It's rainy now" are common and often used.

"It's rainy outside now." works, but "It's raining outside now." works, too.

Although, most agree that "rainy" often stands before nouns such as a rainy day, a rainy season, etc

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  • “Is the sun shining now?” It's very rare to use "sun" as a verb when we talk about the weather but nothing is impossible nowadays.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Jan 12, 2020 at 11:11
  • @Mari-LouA, is “Is the sun shining now?” the same as "is it sunny now?"
    – Tom
    Jan 12, 2020 at 11:44
  • Yes, they have both the same meaning. Why do you think the two situations are different?
    – Mari-Lou A
    Jan 12, 2020 at 11:50
  • @Mari-LouA, because it seems "is it rainy now?" & "is it raining now?" are not the same. Why is that?
    – Tom
    Jan 12, 2020 at 11:56
  • But using "now" tells us the weather is sunny=pleasant at the time of speaking. The dictionary's example It had been raining hard all night tells us that it consistently rained all night i.e. "a lot".
    – Mari-Lou A
    Jan 12, 2020 at 12:12

1 Answer 1

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Your definition of rainy means 'a period when there are frequent showers' (a lot doesn't refer to heavy rain). So if rain is falling now we say "It is raining".

There is normally 'some light from the sun' in the daytime. A sunny day is when the sun is strong and there are few clouds in the sky. "It has sunlight" is not idiomatic English. We can say "The sun is shining", which is the only verbal equivalent to "It is raining".

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  • but can we say "it is sunny"? "If it's sunny later, we can go to the park." learnersdictionary.com/definition/sunny
    – Tom
    Jan 12, 2020 at 9:49
  • Certainly we can. Jan 12, 2020 at 9:53
  • the dictionary doesn't say "rainy" refers to a period. "Rainy" means "having or bringing a lot of rain". I updated the question.
    – Tom
    Jan 12, 2020 at 12:28
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    I quote from above: a rainy period of time is one when it rains a lot , which you had interpreted as 'when it is raining heavily'. A rainy day or rainy season is one in which it rains frequently, but not necessarily all the time. Jan 12, 2020 at 15:17

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