Korean Job Discussion Forums

cj1976 · Joined: 26 Oct 2005

This week we're talking about weather. My co-teacher asked me different expressions regarding the weather. For rain, we can say 'it's raining' or 'rainy'. Same for snow.
How about hail? Is 'hailing' or 'haily' correct? I wasn't sure TBH, but they don't sound quite right to me.

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

Some dictionaries might list haily as an adjective but it's very rarely used.

ArizonaBill · Joined: 24 Mar 2009

The trouble with having an expression equivalent to "it's raining" for hail is that hail rarely falls for more than 30-60 seconds at a time. So even though people do say "it's hailing," opportunity doesn't call for it very often. "It hailed" is used also, but again not that often because of the rarity of the event. Most often, the people who talk about hail are weathermen, and then you'll hear expressions like, "we can expect this system to produce strong winds and hail," "marble-sized hail is possible" "golf ball-sized hail has been reported in Jefferson County."

A Google search yielded plenty of examples of these expressions in use. Here's one: http://blog.ancientearthwisdom.com/2009/02/it-hailed-today.html

I have never heard the phrase "it's haily" uttered by a native speaker. Most people would probably think you were talking about some person named Hailey.

Koveras · Joined: 09 Oct 2008

I've said 'it's hailing' before, don't see anything wrong with it, but I'm suspicious of 'it's haily'.

lifeinkorea · Joined: 24 Jan 2009 Location: somewhere in China

To expand on ArizonaBill's reply, if we used "rainy" in a similar context, it might come off more like, "It's rainy cats and dogs". In this case, there is a clear connection with "raining" and "hailing". Not only time, but amount may be a factor. Same with "strong windy" above.

ArizonaBill · Joined: 24 Mar 2009

dean_burrito · Joined: 12 Jun 2007

Grammar aside this is how I'd use the two words.
I'd use it's raining if it is actually raining at the moment.
I'd use It's rainy if it was one of those days where it has been raining off and on.
I've never heard the word haily before. But that may be becase how often does it hail off and on? Not enough that it's ever been needed for standard usage I'd guess.