LessonsHSK 1 · Lesson 13
HSK 1 · Lesson 13 of 15
How is the weather?
Describing things: the weather, clothes, and how much — very, too, a bit. 22 words and 3 grammar points; tap the characters to hear them.
🔊 The sound in these lessons comes from your device’s own Mandarin voice, so it differs from device to device. Recorded audio will follow.
📚 Words
- Hán-Việt thiên khí The weather: sun or rain, heat or cold, in one place at a given time.
- Hán-Việt lãnh Cold — of weather, places, food and drink, or how a person feels.
- Hán-Việt nhiệt Hot — of weather, food, drink or anything that gives off heat.
- Hán-Việt hạ vũ To rain: the usual way to say that rain is falling.
- Hán-Việt vũ Rain: water falling in drops from the clouds.
- Hán-Việt tuyết Snow: soft white flakes of ice that fall from the sky in cold weather.
- Hán-Việt y phục Clothes, clothing: anything you wear on your body.
- Hán-Việt xuyên To wear, or to put on, clothes, shoes or socks.
- Hán-Việt hảo Good, fine, well; also 'OK, all right' as an answer.
- Hán-Việt đại Big, large; of people also old or older in age.
- Hán-Việt tiểu Small, little; of people also young.
- Hán-Việt đa Many, much; a lot of, a large amount.
- Hán-Việt thiểu Few, little; not many, not much.
- Hán-Việt tân New: just made, bought or begun, or met for the first time.
- Hán-Việt ngận Very, quite — an adverb placed before an adjective or a verb of feeling.
- Hán-Việt thái Too, excessively; in exclamations also 'so, really'.
- Hán-Việt phi thường Very, extremely: a strong word of degree.
- Hán-Việt chân Really, truly: an adverb that makes an adjective stronger, mostly in exclamations.
- Hán-Việt hữu điểm nhi A bit, slightly, rather: a small degree, usually of something unwelcome.
- Hán-Việt chẩm ma dạng How is it, what is it like: a question that asks for an opinion or about a state.
- Hán-Việt giác đắc To think or feel that something is so: the everyday way to give an opinion.
- Hán-Việt phiêu lượng Pretty, beautiful, good-looking — of people, clothes, things and places.
🧩 Grammar
Adjectives need no 是
An adjective is the verb of its sentence, with no 是: 今天很冷 "It's cold today" — never 今天是冷. A bare adjective sounds like a comparison, so an ordinary statement adds 很, which here is hardly stronger than English "is".
- It's hot today.
- This top is pretty.
How much: 非常, 真, 太…了, 有点儿
These go before the adjective. 非常 "extremely"; 真 "really", in exclamations (真漂亮！ "so pretty!"); 太…了 "too, so" (太贵了！ "too expensive!", 太好了！ "great!"); 有点儿 "a bit", mostly for something unwelcome: 有点儿冷 "a bit cold".
- This is too expensive!
- It's a bit cold today.
- Your cat is so pretty!
怎么样: how is it?
怎么样 asks for a description or an opinion: 天气怎么样？ "How's the weather?", 你觉得怎么样？ "What do you think?". After a suggestion it means "how about it?": 我们去看电影，怎么样？
- What's the weather like tomorrow?
- What do you think of this one?
🎯 Practice
The drill below uses only this lesson’s words. Switch the kind of drill:
Context clues Match the meaning Listen & type Fill the blank Put in order Hán-Việt bridge
Open the full practice page → · All 300 HSK 1 words