The city has 4 distinct seasons

[alpacinou]

I want to suggest that there are 4 distinct seasons in a city. This means the summers are hot, the springs are mild, the autumns are rainy and winters are cold. Each season in the city has those distinct characteristic related to that particular season. Some cities are like that. Some are not. For example, springs in some cities can be bitterly cold.

In my language, we have term "four-season city".

How can this be expressed in English in an eloquent way?

 

[emsr2d2]

I want to suggest that there are four distinct seasons in a city. This means the summers are hot, the springs are mild, the autumns are rainy and the winters are cold. Each season in the city has those distinct characteristic related to that particular season. Some cities are like that. Some are not. For example, springs in some cities can be bitterly cold.

In my language, we have the term "four-season city".

How can this be expressed in English in an eloquent way?

I would say that the opposite might be a required phrase. Most places have fairly distinct seasons, even if they're without extremes. Consequently, I find the idea of a "four-season" city/state/country a bit pointless. I did, however, once hear someone describe California as a "one-season state".

 

[GoesStation]

I would say that the opposite might be a required phrase. Most places have fairly distinct seasons, even if they're without extremes. Consequently, I find the idea of a "four-season" city/state/country a bit pointless. I did, however, once hear someone describe California as a "one-season state".

You're betraying your British upbringing. Many parts of the United States have fewer than four seasons. Southern California has two: the rainy season that runs from December through February or so, and the dry season the rest of the year. I moved there from a four-season locale at the age of fourteen. I was utterly baffled one day at the beginning of my second year of school when the teacher said we'd be studying something "in the spring" — there was no season there that corresponded in any way with what I knew by that name. I had not yet learned that, to Californians, "spring" is just a section of the calendar that marks the last part of the academic year.

 

[alpacinou]

I guess we don't have a lot of cities with four distinct seasons in Asia and also North America.
Or maybe it's more accurate to say that we have a lot of cities in those continents which do not have four distinct seasons.

 

[GoesStation]

I guess we don't have a lot of cities with four distinct seasons in Asia and also North America.

Most cities in the United States and Canada have four distinct seasons.

 

[alpacinou]

Most cities in the United States and Canada have four distinct seasons.

They say Canada is always cold, though. I mean even in spring there is snow.

 

[GoesStation]

They say Canada is always cold, though. I mean even in spring there is snow.

Canada is a vast country -- the second largest in the world. Its arctic North is nearly always cold, but the areas where 99% of the population lives have a wide variety of weather. The first spring that I lived in Toronto, Ontario, it was 85 degrees F (30 C) on May 5th -- and we had five inches (13 cm) of snow on the 15th. Spring didn't really take hold until June.

 

[alpacinou]

Can anyone think of a colorful way to express the idea?

The city has that quintessential orange autumns, blazing summers, refreshing springs and bitterly cold winters.

I know that is not good! It's just to give you an idea of what I am looking for.

 

[Skrej]

Since you're making the seasons plural, you need to use 'those' instead of 'that' for agreement, but otherwise it's not a bad way to express your idea.

 

[Tarheel]

Perhaps:

The city has warm springs, blazing summers, chilly falls, and bitterly cold winters.

I think freezing winters would work too.

 

[SoothingDave]

Only a Tarheel would think "freezing" and "bitterly cold" are the same thing.

 

[emsr2d2]

I'm a bit late with my clarification but I should point out that the person who referred to California as a one-season state had lived in California his entire life.

 

[GoesStation]

I'm a bit late with my clarification but I should point out that the person who referred to California as a one-season state had lived in California his entire life.

He was exaggerating. Everywhere in the state has at least two seasons; in the higher mountains, there are four.

 

[alpacinou]

I'm a bit late with my clarification but I should point out that the person who referred to California as a one-season state had lived in California his entire life.

Do you mind offering a better sentence than this?

The city has those quintessential orange autumns, blazing summers, refreshing springs and bitterly cold winters.


I mean a sentence with a similar meaning but expressed in a more eloquent way!

 

[emsr2d2]

Do you mind offering a better sentence than this?

The city has those quintessential orange autumns, blazing summers, refreshing springs and bitterly cold winters.


I mean a sentence with a similar meaning but expressed in a more eloquent way!

Did you write the sentence in italics yourself?

 

[alpacinou]

Did you write the sentence in italics yourself?

Yes. But I know a much better sentence can be put together. What is your suggestion?

 

[Tarheel]

Three things. What is an orange autumn? Why did you list the seaons out of order? Why did you post an entire sentence in italics? (Was it just to bug me?)

 

[jutfrank]

I love orange autumns. It's kind of alliterative. You could try that with the other seasons, too.

searing summers?

 

[Tarheel]

"Searing summers" might work. But I can't see identifying a color with a season.

Matching consonant sounds constitute alliteration.

Searing summers, awful autumns, wild winters, surly springs.

 

[Skrej]

"Searing summers" might work. But I can't see identifying a color with a season.

Many people associate white with winter (white Christmas, anyone?), green with spring, golden with summer, and speak of the fall colors, so why not 'orange autumn'?

In fact, I think giving the seasons a color intensifies the idea of distinct seasons as color changes reflect environmental changes.