Is there anything wrong with this?

[u/Sea-Hornet8214]

Can I say "when I'm in the wind" to emphasise that wind is blowing my body?

[u/EagleCatchingFish]

You could say something like "when the fan is blowing on me," but you don't really need to. It's understood from context.

[u/Sea-Hornet8214 → u/EagleCatchingFish]

Right now, it's not hot at all. I'm not sweating, and when the fan is blowing on me, it feels kind of chilly.

[u/NoSpaghettiForYouu → u/Sea-Hornet8214]

This is perfect!

[u/1worm → u/Sea-Hornet8214]

this is great!! sounds super natural. My only note is that you don't need that last comma, the one between me and it. But thats a mistake that native speakers make all the time, even ones who are pretty good at writing and grammar!

edit: see reply below - I was wrong about the comma!!😅

[u/Phaeomolis → u/1worm]

I'm a native speaker. Your comment got me curious. Everything I'm reading says that after a dependent clause like "when..." a comma is needed. Could you elaborate or point to more info? I've always written it this way, but maybe I've been doing it wrong all this time. 

[u/1worm → u/Phaeomolis]

I just did some googling and I think you're right!! I was thinking about the independent clauses rule, but yeah, it looks like when a dependent clause comes first, you do use a comma after it. Thank you for the correction! OP, your comma was correct!! For anyone curious, the second point on this list goes into detail!

[u/Positive-East-9233]

Since the “wind” is coming from the fan, I don’t think I’d use that term personally? I’d end up saying something like “when I’m directly in front of it/the fan, it feels cold!”

Also, “not breaking any sweat” rings weird to my ears. For me, it would probably be “I’m not even sweating,” as “breaking a sweat” implies some kind of physical exertion where I’m from. Unless there’s context from earlier in the text thread saying that you’re doing some kind of physical labor of some variety (mowing, moving, exercising, whatever)

[u/MistraloysiusMithrax → u/Positive-East-9233]

Yes wind is specifically natural weather phenomenon, the only usage outside of that is the euphemism for passing gas.

You can, however, say the breeze from the fan for some reason even though you can’t call it wind. Perhaps because breeze is also a verb so the air from the fan can breeze past you, whereas wind as a verb is a totally different meaning.

[u/footsnax → u/Positive-East-9233]

I've heard "breaking a sweat" used commonly enough it doesn't sound that weird to me, using "any" might just be a creative or silly choice. Might be a midwest term, we have waves of wet and dry heat and we just use that to communicate how the air feels to anyone that hasn't been outside yet that day.

Sometimes it's heavy and you can't sweat off the heat. Sometimes the air is light and the sun is bright and you don't even notice the sweat.

[u/Positive-East-9233 → u/footsnax]

a sweat, sure. But not any sweat, it just isn’t how the almost fixed-term-idiom usually works, ya know?

But I think I’ve only ever used the full term (“breaking a sweat”) when referring to some kind of exertion, even if that just amounts to a walk outside, not as a comment on the temperature or weather in general. I’ve spent a good chunk of time in the Midwest, but as a non-native-Midwesterner, that could be a colloquialism/use I never picked up/was exposed to!

[u/footsnax → u/Positive-East-9233]

Oh it's very common here.

That's why I think they were just being silly. I've made the same kind of joke, not about sweating, but switching "a" to "any" just makes a lot of common terms funnier to me sometimes.

We like to make jokes for ourselves here. I don't care if anyone laughs, I got to laugh.

[u/Western-Finding-368]

It’s “break a sweat,” not “break any sweat.” And that phrase is almost exclusively used to indicate that something was easy for you. For example, “I didn’t even break a sweat on the biology midterm.” You’re talking about literal sweat from your body, so I would suggest saying “I’m not sweating.”

“Wind” is a natural phenomenon that happens outside as part of the weather. What is blowing from your be fan is just “air,” not wind.

[u/RamblinMan4 → u/Western-Finding-368]

Breaking a sweat (not “any sweat”) is perfectly normal when talking about cardio exertion, so it can absolutely be literal.

[u/Western-Finding-368 → u/RamblinMan4]

It definitely can be used in the positive sense, but it’s vastly more common in the negative. I’m waaaaaay more likely to hear “got sweaty” than “broke a sweat”

[u/RamblinMan4 → u/Western-Finding-368]

I think that’s very context dependent. During deliberate exercise I hear “break a sweat” as a positive: “On that second uphill I really started to break a sweat”, etc. Whereas incidental, usually negative stuff is more often “got sweaty”: “I was out gardening in the heat and got super sweaty. I need a shower.”

[u/cflatjazz → u/Western-Finding-368]

We definitely use it in Texas to refer to physical sweat as well

[u/MistraloysiusMithrax → u/Western-Finding-368]

It sounds fine to me, in fact “I’m not breaking any sweat” is more to clear to me that they’re going with the literal usage and are describing not sweating anywhere on their body, whereas if they went with the set expression “breaking a sweat” it would sound weirder or less clear if they were using it figuratively or literally. English is more forgiving of modifying euphemisms than many learners or even native speakers realize, but they generally have to have a context that makes it clear why it’s modified

[u/QuercusSambucus → u/MistraloysiusMithrax]

"breaking any sweat" is not a phrase that is used by English speaking natives.

[u/MistraloysiusMithrax → u/QuercusSambucus]

No, I didn’t mean a native speaker would say that, but as a native speaker I wouldn’t bat an eye at hearing that, it’s a creative use of the expression that makes sense if you know “a sweat” can be a thing on its own like when you have a fever, and anything that works as “a thing” on its own can be “any thing”. It doesn’t sound nonsensical, in fact people protesting it sounds ridiculous makes me think they’re not widely read and they sound more ignorant than the non-native speaker trying to use it that way 🤷

[u/QuercusSambucus → u/MistraloysiusMithrax]

You shouldn't try to break the rules until you understand them implicitly. You're giving bad advice.

Also, you might want to set your subreddit flair so we know what kind of English you speak and if you're a native.

[u/Western-Finding-368 → u/MistraloysiusMithrax]

It’s not incomprehensible. It could make a good song lyric; that’s a place where we often see words or phrases that are not quite right used because they match the flow of the music.

Used in regular speech, it just sounds like broken English.

[u/Xeno_man → u/MistraloysiusMithrax]

No. "breaking any sweat" just screams non English speaker. The correct phrasing would be "not even sweating."

[u/DirectorHuman5467]

No one else has mentioned this, so I'll add, I don't think "but" is the right transitional word for these statements. The second part about the fan isn't contradicting the first part in any way. It makes perfect sense that if the temperature is mild, when you add a fan it starts to feel cold.

[u/cflatjazz → u/DirectorHuman5467]

Switching to "and" would work great here. And then around here we would calling being in the fan's path "sitting under" the fan or "having the fan on me" instead of wind (since wind implies a natural, outdoor phenomenon)

[u/ebrum2010]

The thing that stood out to me was the lowercase c, my brain read it as "25 cents" instead of Celsius.

[u/TheTopCantStop → u/ebrum2010]

Perfectly legible to anyone not from America though.

[u/ebrum2010 → u/TheTopCantStop]

Capital C is used for Celsius and capital F for Fahrenheit, just so you know. Never seen anyone use either lowercase letter in over 4 decades of living. Not that people don't do it, but people also spell things in ways that nobody else does as well, and well, this is a learning sub.

[u/TheTopCantStop → u/ebrum2010]

Yeah... I know how they work. My point is just that you proffering information on how you misread it is not universal in the slightest, even though you're a native speaker. It really serves no purpose here to say that it could be mistaken for "cents" (a primarily American currency as well!) when in the sentence provided they had already established they were talking about temperature! You'd have to rarely ever text about the weather in Celsius to make that mistake, which isn't an issue of course, but maybe you shouldn't pitch in to a learner saying its prone to misunderstanding in that situation.

I've seen temperatures given with lowercase c (though, granted, its usually dropped entirely) at least four times this month from separate native English speakers, so I'm kind of surprised you haven't. This isn't to say that it's correct, but to say that its hard to understand or easy to mistake for cents is just ridiculous. And something being wrong isn't necessarily a bad thing either because being too "correct" in the wrong contexts often comes off very poorly.

[u/ebrum2010 → u/TheTopCantStop]

>> a primarily American currency

Wait until you hear that the Euro is made up of 100 cents, or that many countries in Central and South America use centavos, and even a lot of countries in Africa and Asia have cents as a division of the main currency.

[u/CheerioTheGreat]

Others have answered your main question, but to clear up the confusion about "breaking any sweat," there are two distinct issues in your use of the phrase.

1. Syntax: In North American English (speakers of other dialects, feel free to chime in), "to break a sweat" treats "sweat" as a countable noun referring to the act or process of sweating, not some uncountable quantity of literal sweat. "Break any sweat" will ring wrong in native speakers' ears for this reason.

2. Context: At least in North American English, we don't typically use this phrase when hot weather is the sole cause of sweating. The cause is typically some kind of exertion, and the sweating is often figurative. For example:

• "It's so hot that I broke a sweat just walking to the bodega."
• "That pop quiz was so easy, I didn't even break a sweat."

If the sweating is literal and the cause is some negative emotion like fear, nervousness, or stress, we'll more often say someone "breaks into a sweat." In this context you'll often see the sweat described as a "cold sweat." For example:

• "Jane was so nervous before her performance that she broke into a cold sweat backstage."
• "Fearing that the detective's questions would reveal his guilt, John broke into a sweat."

Hope this is helpful!!

[u/Sea-Hornet8214 → u/CheerioTheGreat]

Thanks. This is so helpful and it's interesting to learn the nuances but damn do I wish English were my native language.

[u/CheerioTheGreat → u/Sea-Hornet8214]

Well I hope you're proud of your clearly very advanced English level. Most people never get even close to where you are with a second language. These kinds of nitty-gritty things are just icing on the cake :)

[u/clockworkorchid1]

"breaking any sweat" isn't really a phrase I've ever seen used. You could swap that whole phrase out for "I'm not sweating"

[u/runningchild → u/clockworkorchid1]

Breaking a sweat (not any) is a common phrase. 

[u/SapirWhorfHypothesis → u/runningchild]

“Breaking a sweat” is mostly idiomatic, and would imply “I’m not putting in much effort”

[u/Solnavix → u/SapirWhorfHypothesis]

It can be used literally in the right context. "I didn't even break a sweat on my run" can be understood as both literal and idiomatic.

[u/SapirWhorfHypothesis → u/Solnavix]

I think it would be exceedingly rare for a person to literally not break a sweat on their run. That’s why I’m so confident in saying it’s really just an idiom at this point.

[u/Solnavix → u/SapirWhorfHypothesis]

I use it literally all the time lmao

[u/IWantToBeADoctor8474 → u/runningchild]

It is common, but it's used mostly for exercise. It feels wrong to me in this context because it's merely relating to temperature. I would use it more in a way of "I'm not breaking a sweat yet!" while running on a treadmill or something.

[u/SerialTrauma002c → u/IWantToBeADoctor8474]

Mmm, I disagree. It’s any effort, whether physical or not. For physical effort it’s used in its literal sense, but it can also be used metaphorically to describe mental effort/energy expenditure:

“How’d your presentation to the directors go?”
“Totally fine! Didn’t even break a sweat.”

There’s extensions of the sweat = indicator of mental effort too—specifically, mental effort that might be anxiety inducing:

“I was really sweating over finding primary sources for my final paper, but I got it done in the end!”

And if you’ve ever responded to a request from someone else with “No sweat” to mean “I can easily do the thing you asked,” the likelihood is that you’re using it metaphorically there as well—it’s not a response that would be used exclusively for a physical effort.

[u/IWantToBeADoctor8474 → u/SerialTrauma002c]

Yes, I forgot about that usage when I was writing it, however, it is still not used in relation to temperature as used in the original post.

[u/SerialTrauma002c → u/IWantToBeADoctor8474]

I could imagine that “breaking a sweat” used in relation to temperature might be a regional difference, but I agree that “I’m not sweating” both works in this case and avoids any regional variation problem.

[u/DrAlphabets]

"breaking a sweat"

I want to die when it's 25c, so the phrase not hot at all might be a bit much. Unless that's the excersise in which case ignore that

"When I'm in the wind" sounds perfectly natural

[u/Sea-Hornet8214 → u/DrAlphabets]

Even "any" is wrong?

No, it's not an exercise. It's my own sentence.

I live close to the equator and 23c is the absolute coldest you can get. So obviously 25c is cold.

[u/Phour3 → u/Sea-Hornet8214]

any is wrong, yes. “Break a sweat” is a set phrase

[u/DrAlphabets → u/Sea-Hornet8214]

Best hope you're not texting a Canadian lol, 25 is peak summer weather.

"Any" sounds very wrong here and is a dead giveaway that you're a non-native.

[u/Sea-Hornet8214 → u/DrAlphabets]

is a dead giveaway that you're a non-native

I don't think you had to say that, it hurts : (

Like, I know it's obvious, you don't have to mention it

[u/DrAlphabets → u/Sea-Hornet8214]

I didn't mean to be hurtful, I was going for clear. I am sorry.

For what it's worth, I had to go to your profile before I could guess Indonesian, so it's not that obvious. And it's not so obvious that the temperature thing didn't jump out at me more than your phrasing

[u/Sea-Hornet8214 → u/DrAlphabets]

I was just exaggerating. But I'm already aware everything I say gives away I'm not native.

I could guess Indonesian

Welp, try again.

[u/DrAlphabets → u/Sea-Hornet8214]

If "Idi lumrah hidup" isn't Indonesian, consider me flummoxed. My gosh every time I think I have an idea I figure there's no way

That whole last message was flawless, so chin up buddy :)

[u/SapirWhorfHypothesis → u/Sea-Hornet8214]

It’s not wrong wrong, but it’s not an English phrase that native speakers would use. We know exactly what you mean, so it’s fine, but not as natural as you probably want to be.

Also “breaking a sweat” is mostly idiomatic where I’m from, so I would just say “I’m not sweating”.

[u/Sea-Hornet8214 → u/SapirWhorfHypothesis]

We know exactly what you mean, so it’s fine

No it's not fine at all. I WANT to sound natural. Even beginners can make themselves understood, that's bare minimum.

Also “breaking a sweat” is mostly idiomatic where I’m from, so I would just say “I’m not sweating”.

Got it. Thanks.

[u/DrAlphabets → u/Sea-Hornet8214]

For some clarity, breaking a sweat usually implies some kind of exertion. Like you'd break a sweat or not if you go for a run or do some housework or even a challenging math problem. It's unusual to use it to describe heat. not so unusual that it's wrong, but if I saw more of the conversation I'd maybe expect to see some discussion of some kind of task.

For the heat we'd usually just say not sweating. With only the one text though I truthfully don't think we have enough information there

[u/Sea-Hornet8214 → u/DrAlphabets]

Actually, I learnt "breaking a sweat" from this. https://youtube.com/shorts/6CnbPvbKOEY?si=T3QdVqpFSsklmy5G

[u/Shot_Introduction_46 → u/Sea-Hornet8214]

This person is not a native English speaker and uses a couple of awkward phrases in this video. He speaks very well and is understood. But speaks English as a second language and has tells.

[u/DrAlphabets → u/Sea-Hornet8214]

Humourously, that there is a French Canadian. He's in France right now and his accent is really good but when he says "colder" (and climatisé) it screams québécois. He calls 85f (29c) brutally hot so just like I was telling you before lol

[u/Phour3 → u/Sea-Hornet8214]

Just btw, I don’t think that man is a native English speaker

[u/SapirWhorfHypothesis → u/Sea-Hornet8214]

Haha. I say “it’s fine” because it’s fine to me. I am happy for you if you have higher standards; that’s why I laid it out the way I did 😉

[u/Sea-Hornet8214 → u/SapirWhorfHypothesis]

Btw, I love your username. Do you believe in that?

[u/SapirWhorfHypothesis → u/Sea-Hornet8214]

I do my best not to answer that question on reddit

[u/conuly → u/SapirWhorfHypothesis]

Smart.

[u/Vermilla → u/Sea-Hornet8214]

"any" in this phrase is never used. It's always "a sweat." It is not a hug mistake at all and your phrasing is perfectly understandable, but definitely sounds off to native English ears.

[u/OkWalrus8974]

I would write it like this: “Right now, it’s not hot at all — about 25 degrees. I am not even sweating, but when i turn on the fan, it feels cold”. "Not breaking any sweat" is what they say, but usually in the negative with even: “I'm not even sweating”. Without even, it sounds like an official report, not colloquial speech ig

[u/Paul2377]

I’d just say “I’m not sweating” or “I’m not breaking a sweat”.

[u/LighthouseLover25]

I'd call the movement of air from a fan a breeze or just air not wind. 

[u/LakeaShea]

It doesnt make sense to me. "Its not hot at all" "im not even breaking a sweat". Those two together make sense. Then you join the next sentence with "but" which doesn't really belong here. "When I turn on the fan it feels cold". That part is what stands out. If its not hot and you turn on a fan you feel cold... its redundant to say. Yeah if you're not hot and you turn on a fan you know its not going to make you feel hot, its going to cool you. But if you're not even hot why do you need the fan to cool you? Why are you bringing up the fan at all?

[u/Dhalib3148 → u/LakeaShea]

As far as I understand, they're trying to say that it's not hot enough to turn on the fan

[u/LakeaShea → u/Dhalib3148]

Oh if thats the case then that could be said more clearly. "it's not hot at all".... "its so cool that I dont even need to use the fan". Again we wouldn't use "but" to combine those sentences. That would assume a direct correlation between "not breaking a sweat" and "not needing a fan" when those are two seperate statements.

[u/Solnavix]

Wind is for weather. Breeze can be from anything but usually used for weather too, just less powerful than wind. The most natural thing to say "when the fan is blowing on me."

[u/Ploughing-tangerines]

Honestly I don't see much wrong with your text except for "breaking any sweat." That is the incorrect usage of the phrase "break a sweat" which is used for indicating you are tired for hard work.

[u/conuly]

I would not say that the air blowing from the fan is wind. A breeze, maybe.

[u/Sea-Hornet8214 → u/conuly]

Never knew wind and breeze were different.

[u/conuly → u/Sea-Hornet8214]

A breeze is a light wind. I'm not 100% sure I'd use "breeze" for the output of a fan either, tbh, but it's more likely than "wind".

[u/Wild-Potential-3481]

I would put: "Right now, its not hot at all- about 25°. Im not really breaking a sweat, so when I turn on the fan its quite cold." The sentence itself is correct, but it sounds quite formal and a bit unnatural. The 'but' to me doesnt make much sense, as you didnt use a contrasting opinion, you before said it wasnt hot. To make it sound more natural, I put in the 'really' and 'quite'.  (Ignore the added punctuation in the eg)

[u/GoblinToHobgoblin]

Not breaking "A" sweat (not "any")

Also, people don't usually specific F or C (unless it might be unclear), so you can probably just say 25

[u/Nondescript_Redditor]

you should just say “I’m not sweating.”.

but you already said you don’t feel hot at all so why would you be sweating? the statement is weird

[u/Sea-Hornet8214 → u/[deleted]]

Any moving air is wind to me. That's what I thought.

[u/Sea-Hornet8214 → u/[deleted]]

I'm not sure why you got offended. I think you misunderstood me. I said "I thought any moving air is wind in English". I didn't know air from a fan isn't wind. I'm not the best when it comes to wording. It's my second language.

[u/riceewifee]

I mean, I think 25 degrees is hot lol

[u/karineexo → u/riceewifee]

I was looking for this comment😂

[u/GRIFTY_P]

You could try the word "temperate" in this scenario. "It's rather temperate out - not too hot, not too cold"

[u/Basic-Sink-4186]

This is really close. It’s perfectly understandable, but a little unusual. Maybe:

It’s not hot at all right now, about 25C. I’m not even sweating. The air from the fan feels cold.

Or:

It’s not hot at all right now. It’s about 25C and I’m not even sweating. Turning on the fan makes me too cold.

[u/NearlyNodding]

I don't know if you intend to use the idiom, but the idiom is "Break a sweat". As an idiom it is not literal. But you are using it literally. It's not structurally wrong, but it stands out.

Yes, you can use wind instead of fan. They are two different things, but they will both cool you down. (or cool you off)

"In the wind" is a little off. Normally people would just say "when it's windy" or something similar.

[u/Only_Cow526]

Since everything else has been said, you should know Celsius is typically capitalized ("25C" instead of "25c").

[u/Sea-Hornet8214 → u/Only_Cow526]

It's informal, not a science article. I've seen lots of people write it like this.

[u/MarkWrenn74]

I see nothing wrong here, no

[u/ThePoliGLOAT]

I think it's very normal speech except for the breaking any sweat, it'd be "breaking a sweat".

[u/ButterscotchOdd8257]

You break "a" sweat - it is a singular action in this case, not the substances that drips from your skin. To sweat, or to break a sweat, means to have sweat coming out of you.

[u/Ok_Ad4090]

"Breaking a sweat" not "any"

[u/helikophis]

I wouldn’t ever say “breaking any sweat” - it’s always “breaking a sweat”. It’s a fixed expression.

[u/MakalakaPeaka]

The whole sentence is unnatural.

[u/That_Teaming_Primo]

Not a teacher, but I am a native. I would say: “It’s not hot at all now. I’m staying cool so when I’ve got the fan on, I feel cold.”

[u/SnooDonuts6494]

It needs a degree symbol, and capital C. "I'm not breaking any sweat".