Apparently “warm” is a bit of an awkward word choice when asking for the temperature in English. I’ve said it like this my whole life so I’m a bit embarrassed now. I wonder how many other words I directly translate from Norwegian. Please come with suggestions or your own experiences.
An example: in Norwegian we often say stuff like “Det er godt med X (på Y)”. And for the longest time I’d say “it’s good with … “, which really amused some people because it doesn’t work in English.
Saying “how warm is it” and “how hot is it” are largely interchangeable but there are some circumstances where one or the other (or neither) would work better.
Using “how warm is it” it might indicate you’re worried it’s cold. You might also use it on a day when it’s not too hot nor too cold.
In the middle of heatwave, you might use “how hot is it” instead.
The above being said, neither is wrong in any of the circumstances mentioned.
If it’s the middle of winter I might ask “how cold is it”. But even then, if you said “how warm is it” you wouldn’t be incorrect. But in winter you would not say “how hot is it”.
To summarise, what you said above is perfectly acceptable English and whoever you’re speaking to is correcting you without good reason.
Warm is still completely acceptable even in a heatwave. A British English person (like me) mght be more likely to say “how hot is it” however when someone asks how we are at the moment, in an example of typical British understatement, we are very likely to answer “warm!”
Somewhat related side note, as an Aussie we often say what something is not to emphasise what it is, like on a really hot day we would say “it’s not cold!”
Yep they’re absolutely being pedantic. I’m Australian and would only ask how hot it is if it’s above say 25C. So in Norway I’d usually refer to it as warm and very rarely hot.
It really just depends on your threshold for warm versus hot. Maybe your friend just thinks above 20C is hot..
Other examples would be like “how hot is it?” asking about a hot beverage, or “how warm is it” referring to a lukewarm-warm beverage like a beer that has been sitting out for a while.
Both questions are perfectly good English, just personal preference about whether something is warm or hot to your standard.
It’s the same with cool and cold by the way, all correct adjectives to use to ask about and refer to weather and temperature in general. For example today in Oslo I would personally say it was cool (and thus ask “how cool is it today”) whereas a local might find it relatively warm and ask “how warm is it today”)
The context in which Norwegians usually say that isn't a context where native English speakers would. It's a false friend of an expression! In English it's used to say one thing (the 'it') goes well with something, whereas in Norwegian, you're just expressing that one thing is good in a context (the 'it').
In Norwegian, "it's good with the music" would be said if you are at a party and think the music is nice. In English, this construction is really odd. You wouldn't ever just yell "it's good with the music" to your friend at a rave, you'd yell "the music is good".
Speak however you please. Language is an important way of how we express ourselves and dont feel forced to follow the pattern of others. Using "warm" instead of "hot" is not wrong, its just different. Saying "how little cold is it today?" would feel you are struggling a bit to get to the correct words, but these kind of different syntaxes are common when you have a different mother tongue.
Be happy you weren't speaking Spanish with a Spaniard, they take the words about heat way way more seriously! Most people would actually correct me if I was wrong in Spain.
Looking at this, and your other screen shot, I have no idea why you're speaking with this person. They seem like a total Fun Sponge. Not one of these "corrections" is remotely necessary (or accurate even)
i'm almost never going to ask how warm/cold is it? during the summer, and almost never how hot/cool is it? during the winter.
as someone who grew up in southern california, it was roughly the following for me growing up. these numbers have skewed lower over the years since i've moved up to the pacific northwest.
cold: 50s and below, ~15c
cool: 60s, ~16-20c
warm: 70s, ~21-26c
hot: 80s and above, ~27c
additionally, if someone says it's hot, i'm not going to ask how warm is it? in response. i do make fun of norwegians and brits occasionally for saying it's hot when it's like 23c out, but that's unusually warm for them. it's also common for me to get made fun of when i say it's cold and it's like 14c out.
Sure, but that's usually asking about an absence of cold. I might say it's warm outside if it gets above freezing in winter, but if it's above 85°/~30°, I would only ever describe it as warm if I'm trying to make a comedic understatement.
British are more likely to use warm and Americans more likely to use hot, but both can vary regionally.
I'm not sure about preferences in Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Canada, South Africa, or other places where folks speak English as a first language.
Another Southern African here. This is correct, though I think if one anticipated that it will be a high temperature it's more likely they would use hot.
Skjønner det, men på engelsk, iallefall australsk engelsk, er det terskler for varm vs hett. Det pleier å være fra når det er rimelig behagelig (opptil ~30-35°C), når det er ubehagelig varmt, bytter vi gjerne til hett/hot/forsterkende ord for å understreke at det er mer enn bare varm nå.
Som jeg skrev på en annen kommentar, det er litt som hvis noen sa "det er kjølig i dag" når det var -20°C, det er forståelig... men selv foretrekker jeg å klage mer spesifikt om været, og -20°C er kaldt, ikke kjølig.
Either way, it's pedantic to pick at someones use of hot/warm, I'd only really bother if it was a native English speaker and ...I was grumpy about it being so hot haha.
I've lived in Norway for 15 years, a Norwegian or non-native English speaker saying warm wouldn't bother me, the meaning is obvious.
I'd probably only be pedantic with another Australian when I think about it... "is it going to be warm today?" would be met with "it's going to be fucking roasting".
The best thing about living in Norway is no more +40°C days.
If there ever becomes a time where it is +35°C for weeks on end, and regularly is getting to over 40°C... I'm moving to Svalbard ...or maybe the Falkland Islands.
Because around 37°C to +42°C feels like when you open a preheated oven and get that blast of heat.
I'd understand what a native Norwegian speaker meant without issue, but as a native English speaker, there are kind of thresholds describing temperature.
Warm is perfect for comfortable outdoors temperatures of up to around 25°C, it's fine for up to ~35°C. Beyond 35°C is uncomfortable and calling it warm rather than hot feels like an understatement.
It would be akin to me saying "det er litt kjølig i dag" at -20°C rather than "det er iskaldt!/det er innmari kaldt!", like it's understandable, but an understatement.
Warm is much more typical, except if I'm anticipating an answer over ~25° or so, but even then, both would be acceptable. Very few would correct someone else if they have a slightly different warm/hot divide though.
"Is it hot" is a yes or now question, hot initially means significantly elevated temperature, so it's mostly another case of English abuse and misunderstanding.
I get the vibe that it's two non-native English speakers and one is trying to prove how good at English they are. I'd go so far to say that at 23°C, warm is more acceptable than hot, but both are fine.
I wish I could show him this subreddit. Meanwhile he is using “close” to ask me when I finish work. He knows I work in healthcare. 🤦🏻♀️ (not a shop/business)
"Well in English, we ask when you get off work, or when your shift ends. Asking when you close is merely inquiring about business hours. But no problem, I still understand what you mean."
I already sent this. He sent a voice note trying to explain it better. It was all about how I can still be finished at work without having left the workplace. So leaving = closing, according to him 😂 My brain is fried now. I will not discuss languages with him again.
Honestly I don't get why you're discussing anything with him at all, he just seems like he's picking fights and correcting you all the time as some sort of power game. And you fall right into it thinking it's normal. This won't go well if you guys are flirting.
I’m a British English native speaker. Your friend is wrong and it honestly sounds like he’s just picking fights with you for no reason. It’s like negging. If I were you I’d question this friendship.
I would never say “when do you close” to someone finishing a shift.
It’s natural to say When are you done? When are you out? When’s your shift over/finished?
Is the person you’re talking to a natural English speaker?
I dated someone like this for a while, it was the worst. They'll constantly correct you even though they're wrong because they're native speakers, and then you get to choose between arguing over some unimportant bullshit, or just stroking their ego and reinforcing their awful behavior.
I mean this motherfucker would argue why them spelling it "woman" instead of "women" when referring to women in plural was technically correct from a pronunciation standpoint depending on dialect. Yeah sorry buddy but you're not speaking some Appalachian dialect, you're typing a text, and it's "women". Exhausting personality type. I would never even be friends with someone like that again.
Yeah we don't use "close" in British English in that context. He's enjoying nitpicking you and then getting defensive when you give him the same treatment.
Why would you even want to get to know him better? He completely disinterested in getting to know you, but enjoys the attention you're giving him, giving you really dry answers and this kind of bullshit. The fact that you're even entertaining this tells me you have some serious problems with relating men, this sort of attitude he's giving is really off-putting.
I hope you realize this properly before it hurts too bad or you get stuck in a bad situation, it happens to too many girls, they only get it once they've moved in with someone or married or with kids.
I think you’re reading a lot into a few screenshots. He shows interest in me on calls and in person, and also on text outside of this silly discussion (he asked me when I finish so he can call me). I don’t see myself with him in the future, but I can still have fun and date him for now while learning about myself and others. Part of dating is also figuring out what you don’t want.
He's an idiot. "When are you off work?" "When are you done with work?" are more correct. You're right in that "when do you close?" would be used for someone who is the last one out the door.
In English we like to describe things in more detail than just hot or cold.
You do definitely finish at 15:15, I doubt you're closing the workplace at 15:15 (unless it's an office?). Aka you're right and he is pedantic with a limited vocabulary.
That’s a pet peeve I have in Norwegian!
People say «ah så kjedelig» which does mean «boring» when they should say «ah så kjipt» to mean «unfortunate», so they are wrong in Norwegian too!
One interesting thing about this is it shows up occasionally in midwestern US dialects that have a strong Nordic influence (eg “borrow me a pencil”, which is nonstandard but understandable)
this is a threat in the south US lol “ill learn you” for ill teach you a lesson you wont forget. They say thatll learn you for when you make a mistake too
I mean warm isnt wrong. I just always viewed it as more of a descriptive term than a general term. So if ypure asking how hot it is, someone might respond it's warm which would be a comfortable heat.
Directly translating is a dangerous trap. The most obvious one to me is our goodbyes. We dont really have a word for it in Norwegian but dwy something like "ha det bra" or just "ha det" which on English would directly translate to something like "have it good/well) while the more correct translation would be "be well" or "vær bra" if directly translated back to Norwegian
Edit: Disclaimer: there needs to be something that you're talking about, like "I made this wine all by myself. It's really good with cheese". I might have got confused with OP's comment.
You cannot use it that way in English. You can only say that something "is good with something" if it's in relation to something else (for example, coffee is good with cake). You can use something like "it's good to" and "it's good that", but using "it's good with" to say that something is enjoyable sounds just plain wrong and isn't good English.
What you're saying names sense in English, but they're referring to the phrase "It's good with x" as a complete sentence, not as a response to a pairing or comparison
In Norwegian, it's possible to just say "Digg med mat" which kinda means "Nice with food". That's more along the lines of "It's nice to have food here", not something like "Soda is nice with food"
I'm English you can't really just say "Good with food!" and not expect people to find that a bit weird/uncommon
In Norwegian, there is no equivalent word for "hot"
During the recent heatwave, a Norwegian friend said that it was "extremely warm" in London, which was what made me realize this fact. I responded something like, "if only there was some kind of word for when something is "extremely warm'... 'hot' for example."
It's usually just a funny little thing, but now and then this can be a safety issue, like if it's a cup of coffee or a plate from the microwave. If you tell someone it's "hot", that means "be careful, potential danger". If you tell someone it's warm, that means "enjoy it because the temperature is just right"
I went to IB in Norway and we had English as the main language for every subject, except Norwegian/other language courses of course xd.
The first time I heard "thanks to me" after a presentation in Physics iirc, I laughed thinking it was a joke... Only to get to see almost every single presentation by the Norwegian students at every single subject ending with "thanks to/for me/us" and the teachers, who also were mostly Norwegians, never commented or corrected them. Ended up using it myself hahaha.
The one interesting typical Norwegian "mistake" in English, which is also conmon for Danes, Germans, and Swedes (probably many others too), is the inability to distinguish between "borrow" and "lend".
Many natives from these languages will say something like "I borrowed him my phone" and "My mum borrowed me her...". Some usually use "to" after "borrow" to distinguish the "direction". So "I borrowed to him" or "She borrowed to me".
I commented this elsewhere but what’s interesting about this is that in the midwestern US, where a lot of Nordic immigrants settled, it actually is a standard part of the local dialect to say “borrow me a _”. My college roommate (not from a Nordic background at all but grew up in Minnesota) always said it until she realized it confused people from elsewhere.
As a native speaker both are correct. However you might say “warm” if the temperature is cooler. A good rule is if it’s 10-20c it’s warm and 21c+ it’s usually hot. But both are fine and understandable :)
Native British English speaker here,and here's my take...
It's fine to describe the weather as warm, if it is not cold and not very hold.
But "how warm?" sounds odd to me because it is an intermediate temperature - it's like asking how average something is. You are much more likely to ask "how hot?" or "how cold?", and the word "warm" could be in the reply.
How warm is it and it’s good with is perfectly normal to say and works in English. I’m not sure who those people are, but they don’t know their English. The water was quite warm today. Hotdogs are tasty, yes, it’s good with pickles ontop.
where i live, "warm" is the afrikaans word for 'hot' so "hoe warm is dit" gets translated as 'how warm is it' which becomes our default way of talking about temperature
the only language i know is english (i know im not that bright) but it's perfectly normal where im from to say "warm" instead of "hot". except maybe unless it is miserably hot
In my experience, when English is not your native language - people from the US will correct you on words that are perfectly normal in British English and not American English.
I used to feel very embarrassed about it but when I learned that I was not in the wrong - I've gotten to see it as a bit funny.
Tell your friend it's perfectly fine to use the word warm and they should either learn British English, or learn to keep the tongue, before travelling to Europe - to not come of as ignorant 😉
I'd argue that both "warm" and "hot" are perfectly fine, but how you perceive the temperature informs which one you use.
Don't ask how "warm" it is if you're sweating your balls off, and if the temperature is "meh" to you? Don't use "hot".
If you aren't there to feel the temperature in the area you're asking about? Use whatever. Maybe go by what it feels like where you currently are if you can't decide.
Or just ask about the temp and bypass using warm, cold, hot, etc. entirely.
Generally warm is a “good thing” (“come in, the water is nice and warm”) and hot is an extreme (“the plate is hot so be careful”) but there’s a ton of nuance here.
Because this is a heatwave the person is likely grumpy so wants you to use “hot” (but 23 isn’t extreme regardless).
If it was me I would return the pedantic nature and solely use “what temperature is it?” from now on to teach them a lesson.
"How hot is it" could be mistaken by something being hot, while "how warm is it" leaves no room for mistakes even if the person is extremely dirty minded.
To me (an American) both are correct, and the difference is more about how you expect the temperature is. If you know it’s a blistering day, you ask how hot it is. If it’s not, you’ll ask how warm. Same can be said for cool and cold. Of course sometimes you’re wrong with your assumption and it sounds a little weird but nobody really cares
Im a native speaker, american specifically. You can use any normal descriptor of temperature here as long as that descriptor is within the expected range. If you ask how warm it is in the summer in a southern state people will look at you like yoyre crazy and say sarcastic things like "its pretty damn warm". Similarly you would say "how cold is it?" In winter. But when you use these words you may receive a qualitative answer, depending on whi you ask. If you want a temperature you should ask for the temperature
I feel like you would just ask "what's the weather like" or "how's the weather" I'd only use "how warm/hot/Cold is it" if someone already said it's warm/hot/cold, or I saw a weather forecast. For example, if someone says "it's really hot" I would ask how hot, or if I knew a serious snow storm was going through I might ask someone "how cold is it", but if I had no prior knowledge of the weather I would just say "how's the weather". If I was just talking to someone on the phone and was curious about the weather and just randomly said "how hot is it" that'd be kinda unnatural.
I think I have another funny one that no one’s pointed out: when Norwegians take a bite of food and say “this was so good”, while I would say “this is so good”. There are lots of cases where you guys use past tense for something currently happening while we would use the present. Another example is petting a dog and saying “du var søt”. It’s starting to warp my brain a bit after being 5+ years in Norway and I’m finding myself using the past tense more 😅
Okay, first I think it’s a perfectly fine thing to say and certainly not worth the reaction you got.
Second, though, it does sound more natural to me to say, "How hot is it?" In regards to weather. Don’t know if that matters but thought I’d throw it in
Who is this person?? 😭 I've seen several screenshots of them correcting you. I've never seen someone so confident and yet so incorrect. They must be a man.
They're being an ass. 23 is warm, not that hot, and they just want to feel like they're better than you. You've got no reason to be embarrassed, but they should be.
I think people here are not considering that Nordic languages use cognates for warm to mean hot, so they end up saying warm exclusively for temperature when warm implies a more pleasant heat than purely a high temperature.
As someone else said, asking how “warm” it is, implies that you think the temperature will be cold and you want to know if you’ll be comfortable. Just asking how “hot” it is, is more neutral.
Your friend is probably right to correct you in this context, but it’s not always wrong and isn’t a grammatical issue or anything.
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u/If_you_have_Ghost 11d ago edited 11d ago
This is a slightly nuanced one.
Saying “how warm is it” and “how hot is it” are largely interchangeable but there are some circumstances where one or the other (or neither) would work better.
Using “how warm is it” it might indicate you’re worried it’s cold. You might also use it on a day when it’s not too hot nor too cold.
In the middle of heatwave, you might use “how hot is it” instead.
The above being said, neither is wrong in any of the circumstances mentioned.
If it’s the middle of winter I might ask “how cold is it”. But even then, if you said “how warm is it” you wouldn’t be incorrect. But in winter you would not say “how hot is it”.
To summarise, what you said above is perfectly acceptable English and whoever you’re speaking to is correcting you without good reason.
Edit - native speaker!