You might know the story that the Inuit have different words for snow, but do you also know that the Dutch have many words for rain?
When it is raining, it can be ‘motregen’, ‘een stortbui’, ‘een buitje’ or ‘het komt met bakken uit de lucht vallen’. There is ‘slagregen’, ‘stromende regen’ or ‘het regen pijpestelen’.
Besides that there are many words for rain, it can be divided in some categories. Here a small guide to learn more about the different types of rain in the Netherlands.
| Motregen | Very soft rain with small raindrops. People also say ‘het miezert’ if it is raining like this. |
| Regen | If the raindrops are bigger and if they are falling down faster you call it ‘regen’. In the Netherlands ‘de regen’ can last for a short time or for the whole day. |
| Een bui | The raindrops in ‘een bui’ are bigger than by ‘regen’. When Dutch people talk about ‘een bui’ they mean that there is heavy rain for a short time. The time or the intensity of rain is with ‘een buitje’ less than with ‘een stortbui’. |
| Een hoosbui | If there is ‘een hoosbui’ there will be more than 25 milimeters of rain falling down in an hour. This is the most heavy bui. In this case people also say ‘het komt met bakken uit de lucht vallen’. |
Complaining about the wheater is something that the Dutch people love to do so we do it a lot. Whenever you would like to start a conversation or if you’re out of topics, just start talking about the weather. Good sentences to start are ‘wat een lekker weertje hé?!’ which means ‘it’s nice weahter, isn’t it?’ or ‘wat een kutweer’ if the weather is not that nice.
