French: Weather and seasons

Part ofFrenchFrench speaking

How to use ‘il fait’

Springtime - a rabbit in a field full of flowers and sheep.

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.

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

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

– it’s hot

– it’s cold

– it’s cool

– it’s nice

– it’s bad

Springtime - a rabbit in a field full of flowers and sheep.
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What's the weather like?

You also use to ask about the weather.

Use the phrase – ‘what weather’. Then change the order of to fait il and join it with a hyphen .

– What’s the weather like?

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Summer

How to use ‘il y a de’

Another useful phrase to talk about the weather is . It’s like saying ‘there is some’, but in English, we say ‘it is’. For example:

– 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:

for masculine nouns

for feminine nouns

if the nouns begins with a vowel

if the noun is plural (more than one)

Summer

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

FrenchEnglish
it’s foggy
it’s sunny
it’s windy
it’s stormy
it’s cloudy
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A snowy scene of mountains and white trees

How to use ‘il’ + a verb

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

– it’s freezing

– it’s snowing

– it’s raining

A snowy scene of mountains and white trees
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The seasons

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

To say ‘in’ a season, you use for them all, except ‘in spring’, where you use .

FrenchEnglishFrenchEnglish
springin spring
summerin summer
autumnin autumn
winterin winter

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

– In spring it’s cool

– In summer it’s nice

– In autumn it’s windy

– In winter it’s snowing

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The weather today

Colourful autumn trees in a field.

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

– Today it’s nice

– Today it’s raining

– Normally it’s nice

– Normally it rains

– Normally it’s nice in spring

– Normally it rains in autumn

Colourful autumn trees in a field.
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Describing the weather

A man is blown away by the wind and his umbrella is turned inside out

‘And’ or ‘but’ in French

You can use (and) or (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.

– In England, it’s cloudy and windy

– In Scotland, it’s cool and cloudy

– In Northern Ireland, it’s windy and it’s raining

– In Wales, it’s nice and cool

– In England, it’s sunny but windy

– In Wales, it’s nice but cool

A man is blown away by the wind and his umbrella is turned inside out
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‘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’ () or ‘quite’ (). An intensifier is a word that strengthens or weakens another word.

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

– it’s very cold

– it’s quite cold

– it’s very nice

– it’s quite nice

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A man walking in the woods in the fog

‘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 (a lot) or (a little) after the verb:

– it’s raining a little

– it’s raining a lot

– it’s snowing a little

– it’s snowing a lot

With the il y a phrases, you add (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).

– it’s very cloudy

– it’s very windy

– it’s very foggy

A man walking in the woods in the fog
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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.

FrenchEnglishFrenchEnglish
Englandin England
Scotlandin Scotland
Northern Irelandin Northern Ireland
Walesin Wales

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

– In England, it’s snowing

– In Scotland, it’s cool

– In Northern Ireland, it’s cloudy

– In Wales, it’s sunny

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Key French sounds

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

en

The word for ‘in’ is . 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.

– in winter

– the wind

– in spring

Also written as an, am and em

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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.

The e at the end of is also silent.

Also written as è, ê, ai, aî, e before two consonants, and e before a final c, f, l and t

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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’.

The d at the end of the word is silent.

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Quiz

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Construct simple phrases and develop an understanding of vocabulary and grammar with this KS2 French game.

Play Dash and Blink: Forgotten French!
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