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”)
Various and Sundry 