[General] It's blistering outside

[Silverobama]

Hi.

Someone noticed my new haircut; I have my hair cut very short. He said "Hey, new haircut", I replied:

It's blistering outside.

I want to say that it's very hot outside.

Is my sentence natural?

 

[teechar]

Your sentence is grammatical and natural, but you'd need to say more to make the logical connection between the question and answer. The issue is with the word "outside". Let's build a possible scenario around that.

A: Hey, new haircut.
B: Yeah, I decided to go for a short one this time. It's blistering outside. I was in the barber's chair, and I looked out the window. "It's the middle of summer" I thought "What the heck; I'll get it cut short".

 

[Silverobama]

Your sentence is grammatical and natural, but you'd need to say more to make the logical connection between the question and answer. The issue is with the word "outside". Let's build a possible scenario around that.

A: Hey, new haircut.
B: Yeah, I decided to go for a short one this time. It's blistering outside. I was in the barber's chair, and I looked out the window. "It's the middle of summer" I thought "What the heck; I'll get it cut short".

Here's more context:

A-Hey, Silver, you have a new haircut.
B-It's blistering outside.
A-You mean it's getting hotter every day?
B-Yup.

I wonder if the bold sentence is natural in this context.

 

[teechar]

That doesn't convince me.
However, I'm not saying that your sentence is wrong. The broader context needs to be taken into account.
For example, if you're someone who spends a lot of time outdoors and the other person knows that, then it might work.

 

[Tdol]

Here's more context:

A-Hey, Silver, you have a new haircut.
B-It's blistering outside.
A-You mean it's getting hotter every day?
B-Yup.

I wonder if the bold sentence is natural in this context.

It works for me, but the sentences that follow don't.

 

[Tarheel]

I had to look up blistering. (www.dictionary.com) Gosh, Silver, how many words do you know that I don't?
;-)

 

[teechar]

Wow! Is it that uncommon in AmE?

 

[probus]

I don't think it's at all uncommon in AmE. Even up here in the Great White North (Canada) people use blistering in speaking of hot summer weather.

 

[Tarheel]

Well, nobody knows them all. And I'm used to hot weather being referred to as, well, hot.

 

[Silverobama]

I had to look up blistering. (www.dictionary.com) Gosh, Silver, how many words do you know that I don't?
;-)

I think people just don't use words like this one. I mean, the word is not that common and sounds a bit stilted.

I memorized around 20,000 words and phrases when I was younger.

 

[Tarheel]

I memorized around 20,000 words and phrases when I was younger.

Wow!

 

[GoesStation]

I think people just don't use words like this one. I mean, the word is not that common and sounds a bit stilted.

I don't agree. It's relatively common and doesn't sound at all stilted.

 

[probus]

I memorized around 20,000 words and phrases when I was younger.

It is important for advanced students of any language to learn the most commonly used phrases. But a few hundred probably suffice.

 

[Tdol]

In BrE, boiling would be a common word for this kind of heat.

 

[Rover_KE]

I memorized around 20,000 words and phrases when I was younger.

I'm surprised you found the time to count them all!

 

[GoesStation]

In BrE, boiling would be a common word for this kind of heat.

Re-thinking this, I'd say blistering hot is reasonably common in American English, but blistering by itself isn't.

 

[probus]

I agree with GS. Blistering hot and blistering heat are familiar, but blistering by itself is not very common.

 

[teechar]

https://books.google.com/ngrams/gra...t1;,blistering heat;,c0;.t1;,blistering .;,c0

 

[Disckstuckinfan]

I hear "blazing" quite often.

 

[probus]

Boiling by itself is heard in Canada as in "It's boiling out today." Blazing, as pointed out by Disckstuckinfan, is common too, but only with hot or heat, not alone.