# 雨下了



## cheshire

I saw the sentence 雨下了 in many textbooks written by Chinese, but natives don't actually say it? Is it a made-up sentence only seen in textbooks?



			
				coconutpalm said:
			
		

> And we don't say 雨下了. We say 雨下完/透了


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## samanthalee

cheshire said:


> I saw the sentence 雨下了 in many textbooks written by Chinese, but natives don't actually say it? Is it a made-up sentence only seen in textbooks?


 
Interesting...it never occurred to me...
usually we say 下雨了(It's raining) and 雨停了 (The rain has stopped).
雨下完 is quite uncommon in my region; but then again, the regions that use Chinese are vast and varied.

Hmm...How shall I further explain...

下雨 is a phrase, "an unit" which means raining. We put a 了 behind it to mean "raining" is "ongoing".

雨下了 (The rain has arrived) will be used in textbook to correspond with 雨停了 (The rain has stopped).

In everyday speech, we use 下雨了.

However, we cannot conclude that 雨下了 is a made-up sentence. It can be used in text, such as "这一刻终于到了。他带着忐忑的心等着她望向自己。就在这时候，雨下了。 The moment is here. He waited with bated breath for her to notice him. Just then, the rain started falling."
In the above example, using 下雨了 (it started raining) just doesn't seem right.


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## zinczl

Good job, I guess those are pretty enough.


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## edencheng

Il is not a big difference in 雨下了 and 下雨了


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## Anatoli

下雨 is a somewhat rare "subjectless verb + object" phrase. I didn't know 雨下is also possible. Thanks for the insight.


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## cheshire

Samantha just got me out of the hot tin plate!


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## Anatoli

The following expression must be grammatically the same - verb + object with no subject:

 出问题 (出問題) chū wèntí v.o. - go wrong; be out of order; have a problem (arise)

 出什么问题了? Chū shénme wèntí le? What's wrong?


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## demoore

A try of explanation (but I'm not sure)

In 下雨了, the 了 apply to "下雨", and means the action of raining alread started, so the sentence can be translated by "it's raining".

In 雨下了, the 了 apply to "下" only, and the sentence can be translated by "it has rained".

But to say "it stoped raining" Chinese rather say : 雨停了, or use the character 晴 qíng (see chinese dictionary).


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## LikeBarleyBending

I think most Chinese will not say '雨下了'. It is seldom seen even in a book.


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## Kwunlam

Anatoli said:


> 下雨 is a somewhat rare "subjectless verb + object" phrase. I didn't know 雨下is also possible. Thanks for the insight.


 
By the way , in English, people also say "*it* is raining" "*it* rains". We don't care what "it" means here. It is just grammatical placeholder.


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## Mugi

> 下雨 is a phrase, "an unit" which means raining. We put a 了 behind it to mean "raining" is "ongoing".


This isn't quite correct. Here the 了 is used to mark a "change of state", i.e. it has changed from a state of "not raining" to one where the "rain has started (falling)".  Without any further information, the implication is that no further change of state has occurred, hence the rain is still falling.
However, the "ongoing" state of rain falling is better represented by 下着雨.


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## samanthalee

Mugi said:


> This isn't quite correct. Here the 了 is used to mark a "change of state", i.e. it has changed from a state of "not raining" to one where the "rain has started (falling)".


 
Oh my goodness, I believe you are absolutely right!


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## avlee

LikeBarleyBending said:


> I think most Chinese will not say '雨下了'. It is seldom seen even in a book.


Agree. 
If this happens to me, I'd double check the publisher of that book and the writers as well.
Really looks a bit weird to me.


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## Kwunlam

avlee said:


> Agree.
> If this happens to me, I'd double check the publisher of that book and the writers as well.
> Really looks a bit weird to me.


 
Unless it is poetic, as in 雨下了，我的淚也下了 "rain falls, my tears drop"


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## avlee

Yeah, that might be the only exception.


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## traveler2007

*F*or my personal sense,

雨下了, you know it will rain sometime, so you are waiting for it. *W*hen it rains, you said 雨下了

下雨了, when you see it is raining, you just say that it is raining.


雨下了 often be used in poem.


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