Do you see a difference between saying, “It’s raining out,” and “It’s raining outside”?
I’m a native fluent speaker of English. Someone recently suggested that “out” was incorrect and that “outside” should be used in that sentence. To me, they are interchangeable. I’m not even aware of a nuanced difference between the two.
Seems to me that the words “out” or “outside” are actually unnecessary. Certainly, it’s not likely that it’s raining inside. Thus, one could just say, “It’s raining.”
Hi Paul, I do agree with the fact that phrase like ‘it’s raining outside’ are some kind of tautology because it can rain outdoors only. As for the difference between ‘out’ and ‘outside’ I think that we usually use ‘out’ either as part of a phrasal verb as in “Let’s go out tonight” or “He just walked out on me”. Usually, ‘out’ describes some kind of movement while ‘outside’ refers to a location. I have never heard the phrase “It’s raining out” but then again I’m not a native speaker of English. Lets’ see what @Alan and @Andrea have to say on this.
By the way, welcome to the forum and thanks a lot for bringing up this interesting topic.
Here is some more information on the topic from StackExchange:
“outside” is a location relative to where you are (presumably, you are inside), so in all three of your samples, ‘outside’ is the normal choice.
“out” is usually directional, So your ‘It is raining out’ would be probably understood as it is raining inside but some of it is leaking through the walls / windows to the outside world (this is far less likely to happen in practice than ‘It is raining in’).
A less common use of “out” would be as a comparator; as in “He stood out from the crowd”, meaning he was different from the rest of the people even if physically located amongst them."
Born and raised near San Francisco, lived in Colorado for 15 years, and in Missouri for 15 years. Have heard “out” and “outside” used interchangeably in that sentence in all three states. Only just recently did someone say that it has to be “outside” not “out.”
Regardless of my personal experience, I appreciate reading what other people have to say about it. Consider also:
“Where’s the box?”
“It’s under/underneath the table.”
Again, under/underneath seem totally interchangeable to me.
I had never heard the sentence ‘It’s raining outside’ because it states the obvious, which is of course unnecessary but I was intrigued to find the song It's Raining Outside -- By Nancy Kopman - YouTube
Also acceptable - What’s it like out? This means what’s the weather like?
