{"id":24507,"date":"2026-03-13T14:15:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24507"},"modified":"2026-03-14T15:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T15:26:12","slug":"pouring-rain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24507","title":{"rendered":"Pouring Rain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday it rained quite a lot here in the UK, and rather heavily at times. This got me thinking about the saying <strong>it never rains but it pours<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/monty1958\/22903351881\/in\/photolist-ATTEzg-ZgwqHY-BZJFim-NKQFPL-wzCKbm-2a4C7YZ-24cigAx-GnMiQF-24Y5XpE-R18ZC6-22CFPKi-S4jueY-21stBiL-964xRp-To7Ryd-JY1rbs-zdcWsF-8bq1qp-2fKqrgw-CQeByS-242dbXM-ChoK3F-F7zwAU-S4RsWb-28nzVR9\" title=\"Pouring Rain\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/22903351881_73dc4ba392_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" alt=\"Pouring Rain\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>This expression means unfortunate events occur in quantity or misfortunes never come singly. A related saying is <strong>bad things come in threes<\/strong>. Fortunately this wasn&#8217;t the case for me yesterday, apart from a few minor delays and disruptions on the trains I took [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/it_never_rains_but_it_pours\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><strong>It never rains but it pours<\/strong> can apparently also refer to good things happening all at once or to excess, though I suspect the negative meaning is more common. It first appears in <em>It Cannot Rain But It pours<\/em>, an article by Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope in <em>Prose Miscellanies<\/em>, and in <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/bim_eighteenth-century_it-cannot-rain-but-it-po_arbuthnot-john_1726_0\"><em>It cannot Rain but it Pours OR, London \u017frow\u02bcd [strowed] with Rarities<\/em><\/a>, a book by John Arbuthnot published in 1726 [<a href=\"https:\/\/idioms.thefreedictionary.com\/it+never+rains+but+it+pours\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>There are similar expressions in other languages, including some that refer to rain: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/itneverrainsbutitpours\/itneverrainsbutitpours_mandarin.mp3\">\u5c4b\u6f0f\u504f\u9022\u8fde\u591c\u96e8<\/a><\/strong> [\u5c4b\u6f0f\u504f\u9022\u9023\u591c\u96e8] (w\u016b l\u00f2u pi\u0101n f\u00e9ng li\u00e1ny\u00e8 y\u01d4) = (if your) house leaks, it tends to rain all night long (Mandarin Chinese)<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/itneverrainsbutitpours\/itneverrainsbutitpours_irish.mp3\">Nuair a thig cith tig balc<\/a><\/strong> = when the rain comes, a downpour comes (Irish)<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/itneverrainsbutitpours\/itneverrainsbutitpours_italian.mp3\">Piove sul bagnato<\/a><\/strong> = it rains on the wet (Italian)<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/itneverrainsbutitpours\/itneverrainsbutitpours_japanese.mp3\">\u964d\u308c\u3070\u571f\u7802\u964d\u308a<\/a><\/strong> (fureba doshaburi) = if it rains, it will be a downpour (Japanese)<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/itneverrainsbutitpours\/itneverrainsbutitpours_spanish.mp3\">Cuando llueve, diluvia<\/a><\/strong> = when it rains, it pours (Spanish)<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/itneverrainsbutitpours\/itneverrainsbutitpours_swedish.mp3\">N\u00e4r det regnar s\u00e5 \u00f6ser det ner<\/a><\/strong> = when it rains, it pours down (Swedish)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In some languages such sayings mean something like &#8216;misfortunes do not come alone&#8217; or &#8216;a misfortune seldom comes alone&#8217;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/itneverrainsbutitpours\/itneverrainsbutitpours_danish.mp3\">En ulykke kommer sj\u00e6ldent alene<\/a><\/strong> = a misfortune seldom comes alone (Danish)<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/itneverrainsbutitpours\/itneverrainsbutitpours_french.mp3\">Un malheur ne vient jamais seul<\/a><\/strong> = a misfortune never comes alone (French)<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/itneverrainsbutitpours\/itneverrainsbutitpours_lithuanian.mp3\">B\u0117da viena nevaik\u0161to<\/a><\/strong> = trouble does not come alone (Lithuanian)<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/itneverrainsbutitpours\/itneverrainsbutitpours_polish.mp3\">Nieszcz\u0119\u015bcia chodz\u0105 parami<\/a><\/strong> = misfortunes walk in pairs (Polish)<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/itneverrainsbutitpours\/itneverrainsbutitpours_welsh.mp3\">Helynt ni ddaw ei hunan<\/a><\/strong> = trouble does not come by itself (Welsh)<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/itneverrainsbutitpours\/itneverrainsbutitpours_swahili.mp3\">Hakuna msiba usiokuwa na mwenziwe<\/a><\/strong> = there is no tragedy without a companion (Swahili)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here a few other examples that don&#8217;t mention rain or misfortune:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ar ein skri\u00f0an er lopin er onnur v\u00e6ntandi<\/strong> = when one landslide is over, another is waiting (Faroese)<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/itneverrainsbutitpours\/itneverrainsbutitpours_icelandic.mp3\">Sjaldan er ein b\u00e1ran st\u00f6k<\/a><\/strong> = rarely is a single bear alone (Icelandic)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Nuair a thig air duine, thig air uile<\/strong> = when it befalls one, it befalls all (Scottish Gaelic)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Blog horizontal --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1685480124\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday it rained quite a lot here in the UK, and rather heavily at times. This got me thinking about the saying it never rains but it pours. This expression means unfortunate events occur in quantity or misfortunes never come singly. A related saying is bad things come in threes. Fortunately this wasn&#8217;t the case [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,100,104,107,108,111,124,127,128,129,10,170,39,56,66,67,77],"tags":[164,355,587,138,281,369,284,163],"class_list":["post-24507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chinese","category-danish","category-english","category-etymology","category-faroese","category-french","category-icelandic","category-irish","category-italian","category-japanese","category-language","category-lithuanian-lietuviu-kalba","category-polish","category-scottish-gaelic","category-swahili","category-swedish","category-welsh","tag-english","tag-idioms","tag-it-never-rains-but-it-pours","tag-language","tag-omniglot","tag-rain","tag-sayings","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24507"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24515,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24507\/revisions\/24515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}