Unit 10 · It's hot today!

How do you describe the weather in English?

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Sunny and hot describe different things. Sunny tells you about sunshine; hot tells you about temperature. A day can be sunny and cold, or cloudy and warm. Look for both kinds of information instead of automatically linking sunshine to heat.

What is the correct pattern after What's the weather like?

In What's the weather like?, like is part of an expression asking for a description. It does not mean enjoy as it does in I like sunny weather. Keep these questions separate: What's the weather like? It's cold. Do you like cold weather? No, I don't.

Is It's rainy the same as It's raining?

Both are useful, but their grammar differs. Rainy is an adjective: It's rainy today describes the conditions. Raining is part of the action pattern be + verb-ing: It's raining now says rain is falling at this moment. A rainy day can include breaks when rain is not falling. You can use the simple adjective pattern for the main tasks in this unit.

What are the four seasons called?

Autumn and fall are two names for the same season; autumn is common in British English and fall in American English. Use in with seasons: in winter. These associations are examples, not promises about every day. Morocco has coastal, mountain and inland areas with different weather conditions.

A weather report gives conditions for a particular time and place. Climate describes longer-term patterns. This unit uses short invented reports for reading practice. To talk about today's real weather, check a current observation or forecast instead of treating the example text as live information.

Which clothes and activities fit the weather?

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Choose an activity for the actual conditions and a suitable place. Windy in a vocabulary exercise does not mean every kind of wind is good for kite flying. You can always choose an indoor activity for a practice sentence. Use wear for clothing on your body and take for something you carry with you.

Reading: a practice weather report for three places

PRACTICE REPORT, AN IMAGINARY MORNING. In Rabat, it's cloudy and cool. In Marrakech, it's sunny and hot. In Ifrane, it's sunny and cold. Yassine is in Ifrane. He wears a warm coat and a hat for his walk. In the afternoon, he reads indoors. This text is invented for English practice; it is not a forecast for today.

Where is it sunny and cold in the report? In Ifrane. Does sunny mean hot here? No: both Marrakech and Ifrane are sunny, but their temperature words differ. Why does Yassine wear a warm coat? Because it is cold in the place where he is walking.

How do you tell verbs and adjectives apart?

A verb tells what happens or provides the grammatical link in a statement. An adjective describes something. Is is a verb too, even when the sentence has no physical action. Do not say all words after a verb are adjectives: indoors is a place adverb in I read indoors.

Phonics: how does silent e change short i?

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Say kit and kite slowly. The final e in kite stays silent, but the vowel changes from /ɪ/ to /aɪ/. Pin/pine and fin/fine show the same pattern. The long vowel is one moving vowel sound, not an extra syllable added by e. This pattern helps with these examples; it is not a rule for every English word.

For listening practice, a partner says pin or pine while you point to the correct written word. Change the order. If you always guess the second word, you may be following the table instead of listening to the vowel.

Writing: how do you describe the weather today?

Self-check: say three weather adjectives without reading, explain why sunny does not always mean hot, and read kit/kite aloud. Finish by writing a four-sentence report that names its place and time. These skills bring together vocabulary, grammar, reading, pronunciation and writing from the semester.