Weather and Seasons in Urdu

In Brief

Urdu does not normally use a meaningless “it” in weather expressions. You can say آج گرمی ہے (āj garmī hai, “It is hot today”), with the weather noun plus ہے, or describe an event with ہونا (“to happen/become”): بارش ہو رہی ہے (bārish ho rahī hai, “It is raining”). The verb often agrees with the weather noun, so the feminine noun بارش takes feminine رہی.

Overview

Weather is an A1 topic, but it introduces several patterns that appear throughout Urdu. Instead of translating English “It is…” word for word, Urdu usually makes the condition or event the center of the sentence. گرمی ہے literally has the shape “heat is,” while ہوا چل رہی ہے has the shape “wind is blowing.” There is no separate word corresponding to English dummy “it.”

The essential vocabulary includes موسم (mausam, weather/season), بارش (bārish, rain), دھوپ (dhūp, sunshine), گرمی (garmī, heat or hot weather), سردی (sardī, cold or cold weather), ہوا (havā, air/wind), and بہار (bahār, spring). Urdu also commonly uses plural forms for whole seasons: گرمیاں (garmiyā̃, summer/hot season) and سردیاں (sardiyā̃, winter/cold season).

For an English-speaking learner, the main shift is to stop looking for a direct equivalent of “it.” First decide whether you are naming a condition, describing an event in progress, characterizing the weather, or saying how the weather feels to someone. Urdu uses a different compact pattern for each purpose.

How It Works

Core weather words

Urdu	Romanization	Meaning	Grammatical gender
موسم	mausam	weather; season	masculine
بارش	bārish	rain	feminine
دھوپ	dhūp	sunshine	feminine
گرمی	garmī	heat; hot weather	feminine
سردی	sardī	cold; cold weather	feminine
ہوا	havā	air; wind	feminine
بہار	bahār	spring	feminine
خزاں	khizā̃	autumn	feminine
بادل	bādal	cloud(s)	masculine

A noun is a word naming a person, thing, or idea. Urdu nouns have grammatical gender: they are treated as masculine or feminine even when they do not describe living beings. Gender matters because some adjectives and verb forms change to match the noun.

1. Naming a condition: noun + ہے

The easiest pattern is:

time + degree word + weather noun + ہے

• آج گرمی ہے۔ — It is hot today.
• آج بہت سردی ہے۔ — It is very cold today.
• باہر دھوپ ہے۔ — It is sunny outside / There is sunshine outside.

Here ہے (hai) means “is.” Words such as بہت (bahut, very/a lot) and کافی (kāfī, quite/fairly) come before the weather noun. This construction names the condition rather than using an adjective: گرمی is “heat,” not simply “hot.”

To negate the condition, put نہیں (nahī̃, not) before ہے:

• آج زیادہ گرمی نہیں ہے۔ — It is not very hot today.
• باہر دھوپ نہیں ہے۔ — It is not sunny outside.

In casual speech, speakers may omit ہے after نہیں, but keeping it is clear and dependable for a beginner.

2. Describing the weather: موسم + adjective

You can make موسم the subject (the person or thing being described) and add an adjective:

موسم + adjective + ہے

Pattern	Example	Meaning
موسم گرم ہے	mausam garm hai	The weather is hot.
موسم سرد ہے	mausam sard hai	The weather is cold.
موسم اچھا ہے	mausam achchhā hai	The weather is pleasant.
موسم خوشگوار ہے	mausam khushgavār hai	The weather is pleasant.

موسم is masculine. An adjective that changes for gender therefore uses its masculine singular form: اچھا, not اچھی. The adjectives گرم, سرد, and خوشگوار do not change their ending here.

These two beginner patterns often express the same practical idea:

• آج گرمی ہے۔ — It is hot today. (literally, “There is heat today.”)
• آج موسم گرم ہے۔ — The weather is hot today.

The first is especially natural for talking about the felt condition; the second explicitly describes the weather.

3. Weather happening now: ہو رہا ہے

For rain and similar events, Urdu often uses the present progressive, a form describing something in progress:

weather noun + ہو + progressive form + ہے

The progressive form agrees with the noun:

Subject	Progressive form	Example
feminine singular	ہو رہی ہے	بارش ہو رہی ہے۔
masculine singular	ہو رہا ہے	طوفان آ رہا ہے۔
masculine plural	ہو رہے ہیں	بادل آ رہے ہیں۔

بارش is feminine, so “It is raining” is بارش ہو رہی ہے, not بارش ہو رہا ہے. The verb ہونا can mean “to be,” “to happen,” or “to occur”; in this expression, rain is happening.

Urdu also uses a more specific verb when appropriate:

• ہوا چل رہی ہے۔ — The wind is blowing.
• بارش برس رہی ہے۔ — Rain is falling.
• بادل آ رہے ہیں۔ — Clouds are coming in.

4. Saying how the cold or heat feels

To describe a bodily sensation, use لگنا (lagnā, to feel/seem or affect):

person + کو + سردی/گرمی + لگ رہی ہے

• مجھے سردی لگ رہی ہے۔ — I feel cold.
• آپ کو گرمی لگ رہی ہے؟ — Do you feel hot?

مجھے means “to me.” English makes “I” the subject, but Urdu frames the sensation as cold or heat affecting the experiencer. Because سردی and گرمی are feminine, the progressive form is لگ رہی ہے.

For a general or repeated experience, use لگتی ہے:

• سردیوں میں ٹھنڈ لگتی ہے۔ — It feels cold in winter.
• مجھے رات کو زیادہ سردی لگتی ہے۔ — I tend to feel colder at night.

5. Seasons and the postposition میں

A postposition is a small relational word placed after a noun, rather than before it as English “in” is. Urdu میں (mẽ) means “in”:

• بہار میں — in spring
• گرمیوں میں — in summer
• سردیوں میں — in winter

Before a postposition, a noun may take an oblique form (a form used before words such as “in,” “from,” or “with”). The common season plurals change as follows:

Basic plural	Before میں	Meaning
گرمیاں	گرمیوں میں	in summer / during the hot season
سردیاں	سردیوں میں	in winter / during the cold season

The ending ـیاں becomes ـیوں before میں. Singular بہار does not visibly change in بہار میں.

To say “the season of spring,” use the linking form کا:

• بہار کا موسم — the spring season
• بارش کا موسم — the rainy season

Here کا agrees with موسم, the masculine thing being described. That is why the phrase uses کا, even though بہار and بارش are feminine.

Examples in Context

Urdu	Romanization	English	Note
آج بہت گرمی ہے۔	āj bahut garmī hai	It is very hot today.	Condition with گرمی ہے
آج موسم سرد ہے۔	āj mausam sard hai	The weather is cold today.	موسم plus adjective
باہر دھوپ ہے۔	bāhar dhūp hai	It is sunny outside.	Literally, “There is sunshine outside”
آج زیادہ گرمی نہیں ہے۔	āj ziyādah garmī nahī̃ hai	It is not very hot today.	Negative condition
بارش ہو رہی ہے۔	bārish ho rahī hai	It is raining.	Feminine agreement with بارش
صبح سے بارش ہو رہی ہے۔	subah se bārish ho rahī hai	It has been raining since morning.	سے marks the starting point
ہوا چل رہی ہے۔	havā chal rahī hai	The wind is blowing.	Feminine agreement with ہوا
آسمان پر بادل ہیں۔	āsmān par bādal haĩ	There are clouds in the sky.	Plural ہیں
کل موسم اچھا ہوگا۔	kal mausam achchhā hogā	The weather will be nice tomorrow.	Future prediction
مجھے سردی لگ رہی ہے۔	mujhe sardī lag rahī hai	I feel cold.	Sensation framed with مجھے
آپ کو گرمی لگ رہی ہے؟	āp ko garmī lag rahī hai?	Do you feel hot?	Polite question
سردیوں میں ٹھنڈ لگتی ہے۔	sardiyõ mẽ ṭhanḍ lagtī hai	It feels cold in winter.	Oblique plural before میں
بہار کا موسم خوبصورت ہوتا ہے۔	bahār kā mausam khūbsūrat hotā hai	The spring season is beautiful.	General or characteristic statement
خزاں میں پتے گرتے ہیں۔	khizā̃ mẽ patte girte haĩ	Leaves fall in autumn.	Season plus میں

Common Mistakes

Adding an English-style “it”

• Wrong: یہ بارش ہو رہی ہے۔ (when you simply mean “It is raining.”)
• Right: بارش ہو رہی ہے۔
• Why: Urdu needs no dummy pronoun for weather. یہ means a real “this/it” and would point to something specific.

Using masculine agreement with بارش

• Wrong: بارش ہو رہا ہے۔
• Right: بارش ہو رہی ہے۔
• Why: بارش is feminine, so the progressive marker is رہی.

Treating گرمی as an adjective

• Wrong: موسم گرمی ہے۔
• Right: گرمی ہے۔ or موسم گرم ہے۔
• Why: گرمی is the noun “heat”; گرم is the adjective “hot.” Use one complete pattern or the other.

Forgetting the oblique plural before میں

• Wrong: سردیاں میں
• Right: سردیوں میں
• Why: Before میں, plural سردیاں changes to سردیوں. The same pattern gives گرمیوں میں.

Translating “I am cold” with ہونا

• Wrong: میں سرد ہوں۔ when you mean that you feel cold
• Right: مجھے سردی لگ رہی ہے۔
• Why: میں سرد ہوں describes the speaker as cold and can sound as if the person or body is physically cold. Everyday sensation is normally expressed with مجھے … لگ رہی ہے.

Making کا agree with بہار

• Wrong: بہار کی موسم
• Right: بہار کا موسم
• Why: The linking word agrees with masculine موسم, not with feminine بہار.

Usage Notes

موسم covers both “weather” and “season”; context supplies the intended meaning. آج موسم اچھا ہے concerns today’s weather, while بہار کا موسم clearly means the spring season.

گرمی and سردی can name a sensation, a general condition, or a season. The plurals گرمیاں and سردیاں are especially common when referring to summer and winter as periods of the year. Urdu also has موسمِ گرما (“summer season”) and موسمِ سرما (“winter season”), but these Persian-style compounds are more formal and are not needed for basic conversation.

English “sunny” is often best expressed as دھوپ ہے rather than by searching for a one-word adjective. Similarly, everyday Urdu may say تیز ہوا چل رہی ہے (“a strong wind is blowing”) where English uses “It is windy.” Learning the whole Urdu expression is more reliable than translating one word at a time.

The word کل can mean either “yesterday” or “tomorrow.” The verb resolves the meaning: کل بارش ہوئی تھی refers to yesterday, while کل بارش ہوگی refers to tomorrow.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master these forms at A1, but forecasts and news reports will use them. A future weather prediction often replaces ہے with a future form of ہونا:

• کل بارش ہوگی۔ — It will rain tomorrow.
• موسم سرد ہوگا۔ — The weather will be cold.

Agreement still matters: بارش ہوگی is feminine, while موسم سرد ہوگا is masculine. Forecasts also use possibility expressions such as بارش ہو سکتی ہے (“It may rain”). Here سکتی is feminine because it relates to بارش.

For general truths and recurring characteristics, Urdu often uses ہوتا ہے rather than plain ہے. Compare:

• آج موسم خوبصورت ہے۔ — The weather is beautiful today. (current state)
• بہار کا موسم خوبصورت ہوتا ہے۔ — Spring weather is generally beautiful. (characteristic)

Past weather uses past forms and agreement: بارش ہوئی (“it rained”), سردی تھی (“it was cold”), and موسم گرم تھا (“the weather was hot”). Notice again that feminine بارش/سردی selects ہوئی/تھی, while masculine موسم selects تھا.

Written forecasts may omit some conversational wording and use compact noun phrases, such as شدید بارش (“heavy rain”), تیز ہوائیں (“strong winds”), or موسم صاف (“clear weather”). Recognizing these is useful, but full sentences are safer when you are beginning to speak.

Practice Tips

1. Build expressions, not isolated words. Learn گرمی ہے, بارش ہو رہی ہے, ہوا چل رہی ہے, and سردیوں میں as complete chunks. This automatically reinforces agreement and postposition forms.
2. Give a thirty-second daily report. Say what the weather is like now, how it feels, and what tomorrow may bring: آج دھوپ ہے۔ مجھے گرمی لگ رہی ہے۔ کل بارش ہوگی۔
3. Sort examples by the central noun. Keep one column for feminine words such as بارش, ہوا, and سردی, and another for masculine موسم. Then practice choosing رہی/ہوگی/تھی versus رہا/ہوگا/تھا.

Related Concepts

There are no prerequisite or downstream concepts specified for this topic. Useful next areas to study in Urdu are:

• Present progressive forms — to extend patterns such as ہو رہی ہے and چل رہی ہے to everyday actions
• Gender and agreement — to understand contrasts such as بارش ہوگی and موسم ہوگا
• Postpositions and oblique forms — to build time phrases such as سردیوں میں and صبح سے
• Future and past forms of ہونا — to move from today’s weather to forecasts and reports