It's raining
This is the simple present tense ('It rains') but is very commonly used to mean 'It's raining' right now. It's a slightly shorter, more direct way to say it.
Literally 'Water is falling.' A very common and slightly more descriptive way to talk about rain, especially when it's just starting.
Meaning 'There is rain.' Use this to state a fact about the weather, similar to how you might read it in a forecast.
It's raining. Don't forget your umbrella.
We can't go to the park because it's raining a lot.
Look out the window, it's raining again.
The forecast says there is rain for tomorrow.
Both 'Está lloviendo' and 'Llueve' are universally understood and used across Spain and Latin America.
The pronunciation changes due to 'yeísmo con rehilamiento'. The 'll' in 'lloviendo' is pronounced like the 'sh' in 'shoe', so it sounds like 'es-TAH sho-VYEN-doh'.
While 'Está lloviendo' is standard, you'll often hear expressions for heavy rain like 'Está cayendo un aguacero' (a downpour is falling).
'Está lloviendo' is the most common phrase. For a very light drizzle, people might say 'está chispeando'.
Using 'ser' instead of 'estar'. For example, saying 'Es lloviendo'. — Always use 'Está lloviendo'. Weather is considered a temporary state or condition, which requires the verb 'estar', not 'ser'.
Mixing up weather expressions, like saying 'Hace lluvia'. — While you use 'hacer' for temperature ('hace frío') and sun ('hace sol'), rain uses the verb 'llover' ('llueve' / 'está lloviendo') or 'haber' ('hay lluvia').
Trying to conjugate 'llover' for a person, like 'Yo lluevo'. — In Spanish, verbs for weather like 'llover' (to rain) or 'nevar' (to snow) are impersonal. They are only used in the third-person singular form (like 'él' or 'ella'), because 'it' is what's doing the raining.
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