French: Weather and seasons

To describe the weather in English, we use the same type of phrases, such as 'it's hot', 'it's sunny' or 'it's cold'.

In French, there are different types of phrases to describe the weather.

How to use 'il fait' + an adjective

One phrase that is used to describe the weather in French is il fait.

If you put it with different weather adjectives, you can say what the weather is like.

• il fait chaud – it's hot
• il fait froid – it's cold
• il fait frais – it's cool
• il fait beau – it's nice
• il fait mauvais – it's bad

'What's the weather like?' in French

You also use il fait to ask about the weather.

Use the phrase Quel temps – 'what weather'. Then change the order of il fait to fait il and join it with a hyphen fait-il.

• Quel temps fait-il ? – What's the weather like?

How to use 'il y a de'

Another useful phrase to talk about the weather is il y a de. It's like saying 'there is some', but in English, we say 'it is'. For example:

• Il y a du soleil – It's sunny

The spelling of the de after il y a changes depending on whether the weather noun is masculine, feminine or plural or whether it begins with a vowel. So you would use:

• du for masculine nouns
• de la for feminine nouns
• de l' if the nouns begins with a vowel
• des if the noun is plural (more than one)

Here are some weather phrases that you can use with il y a de.

How to use 'il' + a verb

If you want to say 'it's snowing', 'it's raining', or 'it's freezing', you use il plus the correct form of the verb.

• il gèle – it's freezing
• il neige – it's snowing
• il pleut – it's raining

Seasons in French

To talk about the weather at different times of year, you can use the words for seasons.

To say 'in' a season, you use en for them all, except 'in spring', where you use au.

Try adding the seasons to the weather phrases that you have already learnt:

• Au printemps il fait frais – In spring it's cool
• En été il fait beau – In summer it's nice
• En automne il y a du vent – In autumn it's windy
• En hiver il neige – In winter it's snowing

What's the weather like today?

You might want to say what the weather is like today (aujourd'hui) or what the weather is normally (normalement) like.

• Aujourd'hui il fait beau – Today it's nice

• Aujourd'hui il pleut – Today it's raining

• Normalement il fait beau – Normally it's nice

• Normalement il pleut – Normally it rains

• Normalement il fait beau au printemps – Normally it's nice in spring

• Normalement il pleut en automne – Normally it rains in autumn

Countries in French

Here are some country names so you can talk about the weather where you live.

To say 'in' a country, you use en for them all, except Wales, where you use au.

Try adding the countries to the weather phrases that you have already learnt:

• En Angleterre, il neige – In England, it's snowing
• En Écosse, il fait frais – In Scotland, it's cool
• En Irlande du Nord, il y a des nuages – In Northern Ireland, it's cloudy
• Au pays de Galles, il y a du soleil – In Wales, it's sunny

'And' or 'but' in French

You can use et (and) or mais (but) to talk about two types of weather. 'And' or 'but' are called conjunctions.

Conjunctions are joining words that link together parts of a sentence.

• En Angleterre, il y a des nuages et il y a du vent – In England, it's cloudy and windy

• En Écosse, il fait frais et il y a des nuages – In Scotland, it's cool and cloudy

• En Irlande du Nord, il y a du vent et il pleut – In Northern Ireland, it's windy and it's raining

• Au pays de Galles, il fait beau et il fait frais – In Wales, it's nice and cool

• En Angleterre, il y a du soleil mais il y a du vent – In England, it's sunny but windy

• Au pays de Galles, il fait beau mais il fait frais – In Wales, it's nice but cool

'Very' and 'quite' in French

If you want to say 'it's very cold' or 'quite cold', you can add an intensifier such as 'very' (très) or 'quite' (assez). An intensifier is a word that strengthens or weakens another word.

With a il fait + adjective phrase, you use très (very) and assez (quite) before the adjective.

• il fait très froid – it's very cold
• il fait assez froid – it's quite cold
• il fait très beau – it's very nice
• il fait assez beau – it's quite nice

'A lot' and 'a little' in French

When talking about the weather, you can also use quantifiers which are words that tell us the quantity of an object, such as 'a lot' or 'a little'.

With il + a verb phrases, you use beaucoup (a lot) or un peu (a little) after the verb:

• il pleut un peu – it's raining a little
• il pleut beaucoup – it's raining a lot
• il neige un peu – it's snowing a little
• il neige beaucoup – it's snowing a lot

With the il y a phrases, you add beaucoup de (a lot of) before the weather noun. Notice that with these phrases in English we use 'very' but in French we use beaucoup de (a lot of).

• il y a beaucoup de nuages – it's very cloudy
• il y a beaucoup de vent – it's very windy
• il y a beaucoup de brouillard – it's very foggy

Key French sounds

Below are some important French sounds that you have heard in this topic. Try practising them yourself out loud.

1. en

The word for 'in' is en. This is a nasal sound when air comes down your nose, as well as through your mouth. It makes the same sound as the letters am, an and em.

• en hiver – in winter
• le vent – the wind
• au printemps – in spring

2. ei

The letters ei sound like e in egg.

This sound can be written as e before two consonants, è, ê, ai, aî, ei and e before a final c, l or t.

• la neige

The e at the end of la neige is also silent.

3. oi, oî

The two vowels oi do not make the same sound as they do in English. It is like an English w followed by an a sound like the a in 'apple'.

• froid

The d at the end of the word is silent.