"Hoy llovió mucho."

they really wanted you to choose "today it is a laboratory"

Wow! Is that what Duo used to be like??

You did report it I hope.

Are you a gym guy? Maybe what you meant was:

I trained a lot today

Because (unfortunately) duolingo is not perfect, and does not accept all correct answers to all questions. Oh, and maybe this isn't considered proper English. I'm not really sure. I know I say it, but that doesn't really mean much because I practically speak my own dialect with my own accent.

Most people avoid a bare "much" in direct positive statements.

Yes, I didn't appreciate that. I prefer to avoid saying "a lot" since it implies a vacant lot full of rain or some other predetermined size or amount.

Apparently Duolingo tend to think that the use of "much" in simple, affirmative sentences is wrong. It isn't. Even if speakers tend to prefer "a lot" to "much". On the other hand there is a debate going on whether it is acceptable to say "it rained today" VS "it has rained today".

It's actually wrong. You can ask 'does it rain much here?' but never state that 'it rains much'.

In English, much is generally not used with sentences that are positive statements about uncountable nouns. There's a chart on this page that breaks it down better than I can explain it: http://www.grammar.cl/Notes/Much_Many_Lot_Few.htm

FULL DISCLOSURE: Native English speaker - US, Southern Appalachian dialect. Other uses of English may vary. Advice about Spanish should be taken with a grain of salt.

Me too. I thought I was hearing a lot of rain, maybe.

En todo caso "hoy llovió mucho". 'Oí ' es el participio del verbo 'oir'

Tienes toda la razón, para hablar del día en el que te encuentras se utiliza 'ha llovido' , llovió el mes pasado, ayer o hace un siglo.

Agreed. The day on which it rained is not yet over.

Not necessarily. If it rained earlier that day and the rain is over, you'd say "Hoy llovió." It's like the difference, in English, between "Today, it has rained a lot" (llovido) and "Today, it rained a lot" (llovió.)

I don't know about Spanish but with "today" one should use the present perfect, not the simple past: Today it has rained a lot and NOT *Today it rained a lot as the day is not yet finished.

It flooded here the other day.

A lot in fact there is even a flash flood warning

http://spanish.about.com/od/spanishpronunciation/a/pronouncing_ll.htm

LL is pronounced more or less like English Y (in "yard") in Standard Spanish and more like English J in Latin American Spanish. This Latin American J-sound isn't very consistent, sometimes it sounds like the middle consonant of English "measure". The Duolingo speaker tend to use a Latin American pronounciation.

My daughter, who is studying Spanish at the University of Illinois, says she was taught that Y is for beginners and that on music ll is pronounced J with a sh sound. Live and learn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_phonology

The Spanish sentence used a preterit.

http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/preteriterm.htm http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/prespertense.htm I see where you are coming from, but it is all in the view point of the speaker. If the speaker uses the preterit, then that gives information about the view point of the speaker and should be translated to the simple past. For example: "It rained a lot. Now, it is no longer raining. Since my daughter practices soccer on artificial turf, she will still have her practice." but "It has rained a lot." My son's soccer practice has been cancelled, because the grass field is too wet and muddy and would get damaged in this condition." The present perfect is used for the recent past and can be used for a past that continues until now or affects the present. The simple past can be used for any past that is done, but it does not give further information about when it was done, just that it is no longer happening. You have the word "today" to let you know it happened earlier in the same day, otherwise you wouldn't know when it happened with the preterit. "It has rained a lot." would imply that this happened recently maybe even today.

In English, there is an expression "to rain down..." as in "She rains down candy on the little ones." It only works with an object that can be scattered. "They rained rice down on the newlyweds." although you can also use the verb "shower".

Playing it slow doesn't help

I think "was raining" would be a different tense in Spanish - the imperfect. This page might help you: http://www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/59

Much is used by itself to mean often as in "She doesn't visit her family much."
or in expressions to mean "much the same": "We left the house much as we found it." It is used as an adjective with nouns or as an adverb describing adjectives or past participles. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/much

It is used with other words "too much" , "not much", "very much", "so much", "much better", "much more", "much pleased", "much interested", "much the same"...

Technically "a lot" is the same, but similar words often have a different "flavor". You could use "a lot" to mean "often", but you would not use it to mean "very". It is used more often without another word and to use it with a noun you would have to add the preposition "of" after it. People generally have a preference for one word or the other for different situations. Another expression would be "a great deal". If you feel "much" should be allowed, then report it. Keep in mind that more often people will use "a lot" or "a great deal" when talking about rain, or any other number of expressions "cats and dogs", "by the bucket".....

"lluvio" is not a Spanish word, because the stress should fall on the last syllable here.

This website is the authoritative Spanish dictionary. When you type in llovió, the dictionary shows the verb in infinitive form defined in Spanish, press the conjugar button and you will see how this verb looks when conjugated. Pay attention to the Pretérito form (also known as Pretérito Perfecto Simple). You can also switch to Spanish/English version of this dictionary for definitions, but it won't show the conjugations there. http://dictionary.reverso.net/spanish-english/llovió

http://conjugator.reverso.net/conjugation-spanish-verb-llover.html

http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=llovió

"too much" would be "demasiado"

http://spanish.about.com/od/spanishpronunciation/a/pronouncing_ll.htm

You can listen here:

http://forvo.com/word/llueve/#es

http://forvo.com/word/llov%C3%ADa/#es

http://forvo.com/word/llovi%C3%B3/#es

Oh and you have another copy of this lower down so could you delete your extra copy of the same question.

Lots of reasons, khalil. There is no verb. You're using "rain" as a noun. There is not implication of past tense.

That is your choice, of course, but, if you tell us what you are having trouble with, we might be able to help.

Here's another use besides using "it rained." "He rained insults upon the Duo-owl's head!" ;-)

This wrong. You don't say "muy mucho" in Spanish. If you wanted to say "I love you very much" or "I love you a lot," you would say "Te quiero mucho." Also, un English we don't say "I love you much."

It is not "very much." It is just "much." But in translation to English "a lot" is a more natural way of saying "much" in this case.

I think it is the "very much." The example Spanish only has "mucho" so "It rained much today" not "very much". "It rained a lot today" seems a pretty straight forward translation.

In terms of basic meaning, there isn't much difference. In terms of grammatical structure, they are entirely different.

It rained a lot = Llovió mucho There was much rain = Había mucha lluvia.

The most significant difference in these sentences is the verb. In the top sentence, rain is being used as a verb. In the bottom sentence, rain is being used as a noun and the verb is to have (in Spanish) and to be (in English). "There is", "there was", etc. translate a bit strangely across the English-Spanish line. Truthfully, I'm not 100% that "había mucha lluvia" is a proper sentence in Spanish. I don't have the whole 'there was' thing down in Spanish by a long shot. (If any native Spanish speakers are looking, I'd love to know if that sentence is good.)

FULL DISCLOSURE: Native English speaker - US, Southern Appalachian dialect. Other uses of English may vary. Advice about Spanish should be taken with a grain of salt.

Yes, it is. Spanish is the official language of some 20 countries, and an unofficial one is many others. In some countries it sounds like J (as in Jack), in others like Y (as in yes), and in a few even like SH.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Native English speaker - US, Southern Appalachian dialect. Other uses of English may vary. Advice about Spanish should be taken with a grain of salt.

"Today rained a lot" has no subject. You need the word "it" for it to be correct or to even be considered a sentence in English. We almost always require subject words in English.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Native English speaker - US, Southern Appalachian dialect. Other uses of English may vary. Advice about Spanish should be taken with a grain of salt.

Your English sentence is incomplete. "Today it rained a lot" would be accepted.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Native English speaker - US, Southern Appalachian dialect. Other uses of English may vary. Advice about Spanish should be taken with a grain of salt.