Raining cats and dogs means raining very heavily. The absurd picture of cats and dogs falling from the sky helps you remember how strong the rain is. The idiom is well known, but in everyday speech it sounds old-fashioned or jokey; people more often say It's pouring, and in Britain also It's bucketing down. You can use it with a smile in IELTS Speaking, although It's pouring will sound more natural, and it does not belong in an IELTS essay.
When would you say raining cats and dogs?
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It's raining cats and dogs.; it + is/was + raining cats and dogs; it rained cats and dogs + time
- Take an umbrella. It's raining cats and dogs out there.
- It rained cats and dogs all afternoon, so we cancelled the picnic and watched a film.
- By the time we reached the campsite, it was raining cats and dogs.
What changed
First versionWe can't leave yet because is raining cats and dogs.
RevisionWe can't leave yet because it's raining cats and dogs.
English weather sentences always need the empty subject it: it's raining, it's cold, it's getting dark. This it doesn't refer to anything, so it is easy to leave out, but the sentence is incomplete without it. The only change is adding it: is becomes it's.
The idiom only describes heavy rain. For light rain there is drizzle: It's only drizzling, so we don't need an umbrella. In between is the ordinary It's raining, and when the rain is really heavy, It's pouring.
Your turn
My umbrella was useless: it was ___, and my shoes were full of water within minutes.
Show the answer
raining cats and dogs — The umbrella didn't help and the shoes were full of water within minutes, which only happens in a downpour: raining cats and dogs. Drizzling means light rain, and light rain doesn't soak your shoes that quickly.
Describe a day when you were caught in heavy rain: on a journey, on holiday or on the way to work. Say where you were and what you had to change in your plans because of the rain.
On our last day in Edinburgh, it was raining cats and dogs, so we skipped the castle tour and spent the afternoon in a café.
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