Cumbry (the land of the Cumbrians) has a lot of weather (tuwoodh) – it’s famous for it! – so we like to talk a lot about it, and so should you.
Useful Words
- Howlok Sunny
- Cummulok Cloudy
- Gwintok Windy
- Toomm Hot
- Oyr Cold
- Braw Fine
- Glaw Rain
- Err Snow
- Tempest Storm
- Taran Thunder
- Cesserr Hail
What’s the Weather Like?
In English, when we talk about the weather we use the pronoun it (it’s raining, it’s going to snow etc), but there is no equivalent of it in Cumbraek so we always use hi she when referring to the weather and in most other cases where it is an unspecified thing.
To ask what the weather is doing you say Pe dhel’ edh iw er duwoodh? What’s the weather like? (literally How is the weather?). To respond you might say:
- Braw iw-hi It’s fine
- Cummulok iw-hi It’s cloudy
- Toomm iw-hi It’s hot
There is no exact equivalent to phrases like It’s raining or It’s snowing so we use the phrase Hi gwra (literally She makes) followed by a noun:
- Hi gwra glaw It’s raining
- Hi gwra taran It’s thundering
- Hi gwra tempest There’s a storm
Similar phrases are used when talking about weather in the future, except that iw is becomes bidh will be. Note that Hi gwra… can mean She makes and She will make.
- Pe dhel’ e bidh er duwoodh avory? What will the weather be like tomorrow?
- Oyr bidh-hi It will be cold
- Hi gwra err It’s going to snow
- Ned braw bidh-hi It won’t be fine
To talk about the past aidh was replaces iw is:
- Pe dhel’ edh aidh er duwoodh in Espen? What was the weather like in Spain?
- Tra thoomm aidh-hi It was very hot
- O! Hoadh aidh-hi Oh, it was lovely
To say things like it rained or it thundered we can use one of two verbs, with slightly different meanings:
1) Gwrae
- Hi gwrae glaw It rained
- Hi gwrae taran It thundered
These phrases imply that it rained or thundered continuously or repeatedly over a period of time. You might say Hi gwrae taran pownidh It thundered every day or Hi gwrae glaw truw er amser It rained all the time.
2) Gorow
Hi gorow glaw It rained- Hi gorow taran It thundered
These phrases imply that it rained or thundered at a specific time. You could say Hi gorow glaw war Dhiw Loun It rained on Monday, which would suggest that there was a spell of rain on Monday.
Cumbraek 