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Study in the app →Mandarin Chinese · HSK 3.0 Band 2 · Chapter 22
今天比昨天冷 Today's colder than yesterday
Ma Shan, Wang Yue, and Bai Wen at the park discussing the weather. Learn: 冷 / 天气 / 风 / 雨 / 雪 / 阴 / 晴 + 下雨 (rain) / 下雪 (snow). Reactivates the noun-as-predicate sentence pattern (二48) from ch2 with weather examples.
Dialogue
今天有风 — It's windy today
- 马山 王月! 早上好. 今天比昨天冷, 你穿得多吗? Wang Yue! Morning. Colder today than yesterday — are you bundled up?
- 王月 穿了三件. 今天有风, 冷得很. Three layers. It's windy, really cold.
- 马山 北京冬天就这样. 你看, 天气也阴. Beijing winter is like this. Look, the sky's overcast too.
- 王月 也许下雨. Maybe it'll rain.
- 马山 不下雨. 冬天的雨, 就是雪了. Not rain. Winter rain becomes snow.
Dialogue
在你家也下雪吗? — Does it snow where you live too?
- 白文 马山, 王月! 早. 今天的天气真特别. Ma Shan, Wang Yue! Morning. The weather's so unusual today.
- 王月 是. 阴阴的. 也许会下雪. Yeah. Overcast. Might snow.
- 白文 在我家, 这个季节常下雪. Where I'm from, it snows a lot this season.
- 马山 北京也会下, 但是不太多. 明天好像晴, 我们出去走走吧. Beijing too, but not much. Tomorrow looks clear — let's go out for a walk.
- 白文 好. 晴天最舒服了. Yes. Clear days are the best.
Dialogue
越来越冷 — It's getting colder and colder
- 马山 这一个星期, 天气越来越冷. This week, the weather's getting colder and colder.
- 王月 是的. 冬天来了. Yes. Winter's here.
- 白文 我喜欢冬天. 不太热, 也不太湿. I like winter. Not too hot, not too humid.
- 马山 冬天好. 我们更要注意身体. Winter is good. We have to take extra care of our body.
- 王月 别忘了多喝热水! Don't forget to drink lots of hot water!
Vocabulary
- 冷
-
adjective cold (weather; pair with 热)
- 天气
-
noun weather
- 昨天
-
noun yesterday (Level 1 revisit; temporal anchor)
- 明天
-
noun tomorrow (Level 1 revisit)
- 风
-
noun wind
- 雨
-
noun rain (Level 1 revisit)
- 下雨
-
verb (it) rains; rain (V+N)
- 雪
-
noun snow
- 下雪
-
verb (it) snows
- 阴
-
adjective overcast (sky)
- 晴
-
adjective clear (sky); sunny
New characters
- 穿
-
wear; pierce
- 件
-
item; piece (in 信息)
邮件 yóujiàn — email; mail - 冬
-
winter
- 阴
-
overcast; yīn (TCM)
- 雪
-
snow
下雪 xià xuě — (it) snows林雪 Lín Xuě — Lin Xue (persona — 26, travel blogger) - 季
-
(in 季节 = season)
季节 jìjié — season - 晴
-
clear (sky); sunny
- 湿
-
wet; humid
Hanzi — writing & recognition
lěng cold (weather) Writing
Phono-semantic compound: 冫 (ice radical, the 2-dot variant of water — introduced ch5 with 凉) + 令 (lìng, phonetic). Pairs with 凉 (cool) — both 冫-radical, but 冷 is "cold" (sharper) while 凉 is "cool" (gentler).
fēng wind (Level 1 revisit) Writing
yǔ rain (Level 1 revisit) Writing
xuě snow Writing
Compound: 雨 (rain) on top + 彐 (originally a broom — for sweeping snow) on bottom. Modern: snow. The 雨 radical joins 雪 to the weather-precipitation cluster.
yīn overcast; yīn (TCM) Recognition
qíng clear (sky); sunny Recognition
qì air; energy (Level 1 revisit; in 天气) Recognition
zuó yesterday (Level 1 revisit) Recognition
míng tomorrow; bright (Level 1 revisit) Recognition
Grammar
Weather sentences — noun-as-predicate revisited
Explanation
Ch2 introduced the noun-as-predicate pattern (我头疼). Weather sentences are its natural extension. Pattern: 时间 (+ 地点) + weather description — no 是 (be). 今天很冷 ('today is cold') vs *今天是很冷 (wrong). 今天天气很冷 ('today the weather is cold') — also no 是. Adjectives stand alone as predicates: 今天冷 / 今天阴 / 今天晴. Or use noun-as-predicate: 今天天气阴 ('today the weather is overcast'). IMPORTANT: comparison sentences (Bk1 ch5: A 比 B + adj) belong to this family — 今天比昨天冷. In weather contexts the two patterns intertwine constantly.
Examples
- 今天比昨天冷. Today is colder than yesterday.
- 北京的冬天很冷. Beijing's winter is very cold.
- 今天阴, 也许下雨. Today is overcast — maybe it'll rain.
- 明天天气好吗? Will the weather be nice tomorrow?
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