Fixed phrasal and modal rain

I have to convince a group I teach that us limeys or north european english speakers have a multitude of expressions fo rain, can anyone help, a list would be great, I can only think of about 15 types of rain. I dont want to prejudice the collective rainpsyche by giving my pennys worth. every expression is welcome

regards Siobhan and Iain

A thesaurus is your friend:

http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/rain

Try getting your students to look it up for themselves.

Drizzle

Thanks

I wanted all the local commom phrases warts an all, The link you give quotes cats and dogs, I havent heard that for years what do us Island monkeys really say. the whole gamut of expressions, drizzle was good I always have a problem trying to explain that one " niesel regen" doesnt quite hit the spot.

Cheers I & S

Piss weather. Works in German and English both.

As already mentioned, for different types of rain and synonyms the best thing is a thesaurus.

As for idiomatic expressions, you already have "It's raining cats and dogs" (old-fashioned, but people learning English love it), and there's also "it's raining buckets". Then we have: it's bucketing down, it's pelting down, it's chucking it down, it's tipping (it) down, it's pouring down, it's pi**ing down...

You've probably already thought of these yourself but it's the best I can do, I can't think of any others right now.

Spitting. They'll like that. Es spuckt...

Not quite to the point but try telling a German "es versucht zu regnen".

And I agree on the "Niesel", but "Landregen" hits the spot better.

It's hoying it down or doon.

Raining bell-ropes.

Raining Stair Rods.

Smirr

A Soft Day = A Rainy Day (in the Barony)
and...it's Lashing Down as used by the Rantapine in the Annals of Kilkenny West.