/ɪts ˈɹeɪnɪŋ ˈkæts ən ˈdɒɡz/
English idiom, informal. It is raining very heavily.
Draft Not yet checked by a native English speaker.
How do people use It’s raining cats and dogs
?
Informal and friendly, fine in conversation and in writing that isn’t formal. Usually in the present or past: “it’s raining cats and dogs”, “it rained cats and dogs all weekend”. English has plenty of other ways to say it: “it’s pouring”, “it’s bucketing down”, “it’s chucking it down”.
It’s raining cats and dogs
in real sentences
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It was raining cats and dogs.
Tatoeba, sentence by sundown, CC BY 2.0 FR
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It’s raining cats and dogs!
Where does It’s raining cats and dogs
come from?
Nobody knows. The earliest version on record is from Richard Brome’s play The City Witt (1652): “It shall rain dogs and polecats.” The popular story about animals falling out of thatched roofs has no evidence behind it. Another theory points to the dead animals that heavy rain washed through 17th-century streets, which Jonathan Swift described in 1710. It may just be a joke that stuck.
Mistakes learners make with It’s raining cats and dogs
None for English speakers. For learners of English: it only works as a set phrase. “It’s raining dogs and cats” or “cats and dogs are falling” sounds wrong.
Other English idioms like It’s raining cats and dogs
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?
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