What is a good verb to describe the pleasant sound of rain?

Last week, I was up the whole night working in my house in my ultra-quiet neighborhood. Around 3 am, a thunderstorm started and broke the silence of the night. I enjoyed the sound of rain on my window and my roof. The next day, I was telling the story to a friend, but I couldn't find a good word to describe the sound of rain. The closest thing I had in my mind was the word impinge, which I had seen in a sentence from James Joyce.

"I heard the rain impinge upon the earth" -- James Joyce

Impinge precisely captures all I want to convey about my experience with the sound of the rain, but it is too formal for a conversation with a friend. Is there a good word to describe my experience?

Solution 1:

I heard the rain thrumming on the roof.

I heard the rain pelting the window.

I heard the rain battering the roof.

I heard the rain drumming on the window.

Or, if you like the drumming idea and want to get a bit more literary about it, how about:

The rain beat a gentle / violent / solemn tattoo on the roof.

Solution 2:

There are a lot of good idiomatic phrases in English for rain:

The rain pitter-pattered on the roof top.

"Pitter-patter" means light sounds or beats, and often is used to describe the sound of small animals (like cats) as they gently move about. It has a fairly positive and easy-going connotation, and using "pitter-patter" to describe rain invokes a sense of melody and calm.

The rain sprinkled on the roof top.

"Sprinkle" means scattering or dispersing. It generally is applied to small objects, like dust or sugar coatings. When describing rain, it generally implies that the rain drops are small and gentle. It can imply a feeling of spreading in a haphazard or unguided way. For this reason, it has a fairly neutral connotation, generally meaning light rain.

The rain showered the roof top.

"Shower" means a lot of water, should evoke the feeling of being in a shower. It creates a sense of a large quantity of water, coming down in large drops. It's not necessarily aggressive or negative, but implies lots and lots of water. A "shower" of water on the roof wouldn't be resolvable in individual drop sounds, but would instead be a steady drone of noise.

The rain pelted the roof top.

"Pelt" means to attack with objects. Here, it should evoke a sense of anger or aggression, as if the water were throwing itself in attack at the roof. "Pelting rain" would be large, fast drops, coming down hard.

The rain battered the roof top.

"Batter" means to beat or attack. Generally, it always evokes a sense of aggression and violence. When used with rain, it often implies a type of windy rain, as the wind and the rain "work together" to attack the building. In the minds eye, you might see shutters banging about and hear the whistling of the wind when you imagine "battering rain".

There are a lot more phrases, but these should get you going. If you are looking for a more specific connotation, I'll see what I can come up with.

Solution 3:

Maybe 'sprinkle' or 'patter' or 'pelt'?

Solution 4:

You are trying to convey not only what the rain did, but how it made you feel. Metaphor is an option: strummed, thrummed, tinkled, drummed (musical metaphors) whispered, sighed, groaned, grumbled, danced, tap danced (personification)

Other possibilities: plinked, beat, droned, roared, rushed, whooshed, crashed, careened, tumbled, tapped, gurgled, thundered

Perhaps not strictly focused on the sound:

More figurative (and may require additional words): enveloped, enfolded, embraced

And the more literal choices: streamed, poured, deluged, doused, submerged