It’s Raining What?!?

[image error]

In English, when it’s really pouring we say it’s “raining cats and dogs.” But like most figures of speech, other languages have their own expressions, and there are a ton of them on the “Raining Animals” Wikipedia page. Here are a few of my favorites:

Afrikaans: ou vrouens met knopkieries reën (“old women with clubs”)
Cantonese: “落狗屎” (“dog poo”)
Catalan: Ploure a bots i barrals (“boats and barrels”)
Croatian: padaju sjekire (“axes dropping”)
Czech: padají trakaře (“wheelbarrows”)
Danish: det regner skomagerdrenge (“shoemakers’ apprentices”)
Dutch (Flemish): het regent oude wijven (“old women”)
French: il pleut comme vache qui pisse (“it is raining like a peeing cow”)
French: il pleut des hallebardes (“it is raining halberds”), clous (“nails”), or cordes (“ropes”)
German: Es regnet junge Hunde (“young dogs”) or Es schüttet wie aus Eimern (“like poured from buckets”)
Greek: βρέχει καρεκλοπόδαρα (“chair legs”)
Hindi: मुसलधार बारिश (musaldhār bārish) (“a stream of mallets”)
Portuguese (Brazil): chovem cobras e lagartos (“snakes and lizards”)
Spanish: llueven sapos y culebras (“toads and snakes”)
Spanish (Argentina): caen soretes de punta (“pieces of dung head-first”)
Spanish (Colombia): estan lloviendo maridos (“it’s raining husbands”)
Swedish: Det regnar smådjävlar (“It is raining little devils”)
Welsh: mae hi’n bwrw hen wragedd a ffyn (“old ladies and sticks”)