xià yǔ
rain
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下雨了。
xià yǔ le.
It's raining.
今天会下雨吗？
jīntiān huì xià yǔ ma?
Will it rain today?
我带了雨伞，不怕下雨。
wǒ dài le yǔsǎn, bùpà xià yǔ.
I brought an umbrella, so I'm not afraid of the rain.
降雨 (jiàngyǔ)
precipitation
落雨 (luòyǔ)
rainfall
雨水 (yǔshuǐ)
rainwater
晴天 (qíng tiān)
sunny
不下雨 (bù xià yǔ)
not raining
The Chinese word 下雨 (xià yǔ) for "rain" is composed of two characters: 下 (xià) and 雨 (yǔ). The character 下 originally meant "to descend" or "to go down", and it is often used in compounds to indicate a downward motion or direction. In the context of 下雨, it refers to the rain falling from the sky. The character 雨, on the other hand, is a pictograph that depicts rain falling from the sky. It is one of the oldest Chinese characters, dating back to the oracle bone script of the Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BC). When combined, 下雨 literally means "descending rain", which accurately describes the phenomenon of rainfall.
