You can use sprinkling Sprinkling= US, Canada Drizzling=UK, Aus, Nz

No not necessarily... “rain” is a very general word to describe what we know as a weather phenomenon. There are a lot of other words that make distinctions based on different types of rain... sprinkle is one of them which means a light rain... there are other words like drizzle, shower, deluge or downpour are others.

I've never heard anyone use "sprinkling". Perhaps it's an American thing? (I'm from England.) We have innumerable words for raining but sprinkling isn't one of them, not yet at least. To me I'm afraid "sprinkling", if it doesn't mean watering the garden, implies urinating.

You can use sprinkling. One would say it is raining without saying "outside", but you could technically use the word "sprinkling" for other things, so unless the person knows you are talking about rain, you might want to indicate it is outside. That way it is implied that it is raining. Another word you can use is drizzling. Either sprinkling or drizzling can indicate a light rain.

Hi, 1) Yes, I'm a native English speaker and often use "sprinkling" when referring to a light rain. That's the distinction. "Sprinkling" is only used when describing a light rain that would not soak your clothes. The type of rain where an umbrella may not be considered necessary. 2) Yes, it would be natural to say "It's raining outside" if you're indoors. For instance, you're at the office and hear the sound of rain against the office windows. You might say "I think its raining outside, you might want to check before leaving without your umbrella"