Daily English Lessons

Intro

In many parts of the world, life depends on rain. The people and their crops get thirstier and thirstier. Then, all of sudden, there’s water everywhere. There’s more water than you can catch. It’s pouring rain.

The expression “when it rains, it pours” means that often, when something has not happened for a while, it will then happen a lot. A business might not have any customers for days and then suddenly be extremely busy. If you asked the owner how her business is going, she might say, “When it rains, it pours.”

Similarly, have you ever noticed that when one person is interested in you romantically, others become interested too? It’s funny how that works. Find out who is in the middle of a thunderstorm of love.

Dialogue ：

Mason: Woo! Hey, bud.

Jeff:Dude, what’s going on? Why are you so wet?

Mason:Let me tell you, Jeff, when it rains, it pours.

Jeff:What are you talking about? It’s a perfectly clear, sunny day outside.

Mason:Oh, I know.

Jeff:There’s not even a drop.

Mason:It’s gorgeous outside. In fact, I just got back from a long walk with Vanessa in the park. It was great. We held hands. We stopped under a tree to kiss a little bit, and then we found a nice bench and started rubbing noses, just fantastic…

Jeff:Ugh. OK. I get the picture. But that doesn’t explain why you’re soaking wet.

Mason:You’re not hearing me, man.

Jeff:It’s a nice day.

Mason:When it rains, it pours…ladies, Jeff! When it rains, it pours ladies.

Jeff:You’re still not explaining yourself.

Mason:OK. So when I got back from the park, I was coming here, and Amanda was waiting for me, and she just jumped on me, and she started kissing me, and she was just all over my business, and I was like, “This is awful,” but, “This is great!” but, “This is awful.” I was kinda just like, “Whoa.” So I had to go run my head under some cold water to chill out.

Jeff:Alright, I think I know what you’re saying. When you say, “When it rains, it pours,” it’s because before you had a girlfriend, no girl would look at you.

Mason:Yeah.

Jeff:But now you have a girlfriend, and two girls are into you.

Mason:Yeah. It’s like, I was single for so long.

Jeff:And now two girls like you.

Mason:Yes! And it’s all happening at the same time. It’s like, there was no rain for like months and months, and then all of a sudden, the skies open up and ladies just start falling from the sky.

Jeff:Yeah, two ladies are into you.

Mason:Yeah.

Jeff:That’s just two ladies.

Mason:Well, I mean, is that not enough to be considered pouring?

Jeff:Two ladies?

Mason:Well, how many ladies do you think constitutes pouring?

Jeff:I don’t know. Nine to twelve?

Mason:What? No way.

Jeff:Uh…

Mason:Come on, man, you’re totally making that up.

Jeff:Yeah, I’m sorry. I was. I don’t know why I did that. It’s just…since this Ella thing, you know? It’s been…I got nothing. Nothing. Complete dry spell.

Mason:It’s OK, man. Look out into your forecast over there, and the rains will come back soon. I know it.

Discussion

Mason is very wet when he comes into the office. Jeff doesn’t understand. It’s a clear day outside. All Mason will tell him is that when it rains, it pours.

Eventually, Jeff learns that Mason hung out with his girlfriend in the park earlier in the day. Later, Amanda found him and kissed him. He put water on his head to chill out afterward. Mason is excited because after many months without love, he now has two women that like him.

Jeff questions if two women is enough to use the phrase “when it rains, it pours.” He says he thinks Mason needs nine to twelve women in order to use that phrase. Mason accuses him of making that up, and Jeff admits that he was just being mean. He is lonely and stuck in a dry spell.

Do you think it’s true that when it rains, it pours? Which woman should Mason choose?

Grammar Point

Zero Conditional

The zero conditional is used to talk about general truths, or things that are almost always true under certain conditions. The phrase, “when it rains, it pours,” is an example of the zero conditional. Another example is, “If it rains, stuff gets wet.”

Zero conditional is easy to form because all the verbs are in present tense. You just use two clauses, one with if + simple present verb and the other with another simple present verb, as in, “If students miss an exam, the professor fails them.” Or you can reverse the order of the clauses. You can say, “The professor fails students if they miss an exam.”

Finally, this form can also be used for giving instructions about what to do under certain conditions. For example, “If I’m late for dinner, start eating without me.”

Finish this sentence using the zero conditional. “If the movie is too long…”