50396
Looking for a translation for "hail" in Japanese, I stumbled upon two possible
words with a peculiar distinction being made on the size of the hail balls:

  * [雹]{ひょう} (esp. hail balls 5mm or greater)
  * [霰]{あられ} (esp. hail balls under 5 mm)

Is this distinction really being made, or is one of these two words (almost)
never used ? Could you maybe provide me with some examples if there are some
additional subtleties.
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2017-07-15T13:07:21.923
50394
2017-07-15T17:55:12.467
2017-07-15T17:55:12.467
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question
word-choice nuances
Hail [雹]{ひょう} -vs-[ 霰]{あられ}
> 雹 [ひょう] (esp. hail balls 5mm or greater)  
>  霰 [あられ] (esp. hail balls under 5 mm)  
>  Is this distinction really being made, or is one of these two words
> (almost) never used ? Could you maybe provide me with some examples if there
> are some additional subtleties.

The size of the frozen substance from the sky, we don't know, but I think
we've been differentiating them by how strong they are, and how the word
sounds like; 霰{あられ} sounds lighter like the cute tiny baked riceballs for
snacking, and 雹{ひょう} sounds stronger to us in some reason.

But when an established dictionary defines something, we can expect it to have
been officially defined by somewhere has the authority.

There's also 霙{みぞれ}, and it's said that it's a mixture of rain and snow. I
relate it with shaved ice with sweet syrup, and these applications of the word
are both so true to me that I wonder which use came to the world first.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-15T15:55:53.500
50396
2017-07-15T15:55:53.500
22422
50394
answer