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I thought it was a custom in English to write "it is raining" instead of "rain is falling". Still I don't know why the second construction is wrong. Yet I found a song called Rain is Falling, so I'm confused. Is this construction entirely wrong?

WendiKidd
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Mistu4u
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4 Answers4

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It is raining is how we normally describe the weather on a rainy day. However, that doesn't make rain is falling grammatically incorrect. That construction may not be a common way to describe the weather, but it's not "wrong."

The word rain can be a verb, or a noun; as a noun, it refers collectively to raindrops. Moreover, falling can refer to anything dropping from the sky. Therefore, paratroopers can be falling, drones can be falling, and rain can be falling.

One might regard "rain is falling" to be a more poetic way to talk about the rain; for example, "Rain is falling in Santa Fe" might be considered more poetic than "It is raining in Santa Fe."

Here's another place where I could see a writer using this way of phrasing it:

The firefighters had been battling the wildfires for three days. On Friday morning, their prayers were finally answered; rain was falling as the sun came over the mountains.

Bottom line: Don't confuse "less common" with "incorrect".

J.R.
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  • If something is so much less common that it is never used, then it's wrong simply because it isn't used. For instance the past tense for "fly" is "flew", not "flied", and for "buy" it is "bought", not "buyed". The wrong forms are wrong because English-speaking children told so repeatedly until they stop using it, and then later pass this on to their children. So, phrases that "on paper" look grammatical can be wrong. For instance "white and black (picture)". It's "black and white", and that's that. There might be a "White & Black Co." founded by Bob White and Peter Black. :) – Kaz Feb 06 '13 at 22:52
  • @Kaz: I agree with your caveat. "Less common" may not be "incorrect", but "extremely rare" could mean "is a typo", particularly on the internet or in the blogosphere. – J.R. Feb 06 '13 at 22:57
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    A big difference between "it is raining" and "rain is falling" is whether language that limits the scope describes the scope of the weather phenomena or the scope of its effects. Consider "rain is falling on the uncovered exhibits" versus "it is raining on the uncovered exhibits". The latter suggests that precipitation is focused on the uncovered exhibits, while the former is agnostic with regard to how much precipitation may be landing elsewhere. – supercat Feb 07 '13 at 17:53
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There is absolutely nothing wrong with the construct "rain is falling." The listener would know what you were saying (correctly) either way. But it sounds a bit more natural when you are talking about the state of the weather to say, "It is raining."

The word rain describes both an object (the physical rain from the sky) and a state of the weather (it is raining today). So if you are stating what the weather is, it sounds a bit redundant to say it is falling. "It is raining" versus "There is rain outside and it is falling."

The construct seems pretty consistent.

"It is cloudy." — describing the state of the weather.
"There are clouds in the sky." — describing the physical object.

Robert Cartaino
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Rain is falling is grammatically correct, even though it is used less frequently than It is raining. This Ngram shows the relative frequency of use in published works:

Ngram

ctype.h
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    I thought the Ngram was interesting in that both wordings seemed to run fairly even until the turn of the century. Perhaps Ngrams don't tell the whole story, and it's true that Ngrams rarely answer a question on their own, but some of them are quite interesting to analyze nonetheless, and therefore add value to the overall discussion. – J.R. Feb 06 '13 at 19:08
  • @Paola: Re: "it is not infrequent for an expression to be comparatively common in usage and still to be incorrect": How can that be? "Incorrect" is basically shorthand for "not used by native speakers". If it's in common usage, then it is, by definition, correct. – ruakh Feb 06 '13 at 21:04
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    @ruakh: I would disagree with the notion that "incorrect" means "not in use", and that common usage implies (or defines) correctness. Terms like "correct" are hard to pin down. If I say, "We ain't goin'", is that correct? It might be heard in the street, but it's not "proper" or "formally correct." We can save some of that hair-splitting for future questions; in this case, there's nothing incorrect about "rain is falling" – and that assertion is not merely based on the fact we can find instances of the expression in literature. – J.R. Feb 06 '13 at 23:02
  • @J.R.: "We ain't goin'" is certainly correct in some dialects and registers of English. If Paola wants to complain about Ngrams' failure to distinguish forms of English that she likes and recommends from ones that she dislikes and disrecommends, then that's a valid complaint -- but why drag "correctness" into it? – ruakh Feb 06 '13 at 23:16
  • Something which is never used in speech (in favor of some alternative) is grammatically incorrect. If such an utterance is consistent with the phrase structure rules of some grammar, that shows one way in which that grammar (a theoretical construct) does not match the real language. Grammars have to be able to express exceptions somehow. Perhaps with negative rules which generate combinations that are subtracted from the set of valid sentences. That is not to say that sentences which have never been spoken are ungrammatical! Just obvious combinations which could be used regularly, but aren't. – Kaz Feb 06 '13 at 23:34
  • How does the frequency of "it is raining on" compare with "rain is falling on"? I would expect that "it is raining" would be the more typical expression of the state of the weather, but "rain is falling on something" would be a more typical expression of something getting rained upon. – supercat Feb 07 '13 at 02:13
  • @supercat See this Ngram. – ctype.h Feb 07 '13 at 02:44
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    @ruakh: Why drag correctness into it? Because I was answering this comment of yours: "If it's in common usage, then it is, by definition, correct." I don't think that's a very good definition of correct, especially not for language learners. I'd label "We ain't goin’" understandable English, or colloquial English, or informal English, but I'd hesitate before deeming it correct English. – J.R. Feb 07 '13 at 10:59
  • @ctype.h: Am I correctly interpreting that as suggesting that "rain is falling" probably has a slight edge when describing particular precise precipitation places, even if "it is raining" would be more common in describing general weather condition? – supercat Feb 07 '13 at 14:00
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    @supercat: I don't think it's quite that simple, but you're probably on the right track. I have a hard time imagining a TV weather forecaster saying, "Rain will fall tomorrow," instead of, "It will rain tomorrow." However, the notion of a forecaster saying something like, "Some rain will fall in the lower elevations" sounds more plausible for some reason. – J.R. Feb 07 '13 at 15:43
  • @J.R.: Sorry, I think you misunderstood the latter half of my comment; or at least, your reply to it seems to be a non sequitur. :-/ . . . as for hesitating before labeling "We ain't goin'" as "correct English", that's fine, as long as you also hesitate before labeling it "incorrect English". The label "correct" is not really useful, and "incorrect" is only useful when it means "not used by native speakers". – ruakh Feb 07 '13 at 16:29
  • @ruakh: We are on the same page about how "correct" or "incorrect" are trickly labels when it comes to language. However, we may have to disagree on how incorrect and correct are "only" useful in the sense of whether or not the words or phrases in question are "used". I can conjugate a verb incorrectly; the fact that my neighbors and I use that incorrectly conjugated verb does not make it "correct" English. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go lay down on the sofa and rest for awhile... ;^) – J.R. Feb 07 '13 at 19:11
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Well, I might find it redundant because RAIN is meant to fall and you cannot say that "The rain is falling." but instead, we should say "It is raining." Another thing, it is grammatically correct that is why some writers use it to their pieces. It is accepted in literature, especially in poems, because we have poetic license.

Joshua Apolonio
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  • How about 'rain came'? It sounds strange compared to 'there was a rain,' but rain can come and go in a collective sense, so is it acceptable? – VKBoy Sep 06 '21 at 04:38