“비 온다” is not “rain comes”

This one, “rain comes,” is a direct translation of the Korean expression “비 온다”. In English however, the words “rain” and “snow” are also verbs, so they don’t need an extra verb like “comes.”



Instead, simply say, “It is raining,” or “It is snowing.” If the rain/snow is predicted, then you can try, “It will rain tomorrow,” or “It’s supposed to snow tomorrow.” Other examples include, “It might rain this weekend,” “There’s a 30% chance it will snow tonight,” or “It will stop raining this afternoon.”



If you try and translate “비 온다” as, “Rain is coming,” it does NOT mean it is currently raining, as in the Korean expression. Instead, it means there is rain in the forecast and it might rain LATER, but it is not raining NOW. Please be careful of this important difference.



Excerpted from 콩글리시 to English (Konglish to English), my most recent book, available now in Apple’s iTunes bookstore.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.