Learn how to ask and talk about the weather
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Brandon: What's the Weather Like in France Today? Brandon here! |
| Yasmine: Bonjour. I'm Yasmine. |
| Brandon: In this lesson you'll learn to discuss current and future weather. The conversation takes place in a park. |
| Yasmine: It’s between Thomas and Lise. |
| Brandon: The speakers are friends, so they’ll be using informal French. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Thomas: La météo d'aujourd'hui est bonne. |
| Lise: Mais aujourd’hui le temps est nuageux. |
| Thomas : Exact, mais ce n'est pas la canicule et il ne pleut pas. |
| Lise : Le temps de demain est parfait, ensoleillé et chaud. |
| Brandon: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Thomas: La météo d'aujourd'hui est bonne. |
| Lise: Mais aujourd’hui le temps est nuageux. |
| Thomas : Exact, mais ce n'est pas la canicule et il ne pleut pas. |
| Lise : Le temps de demain est parfait, ensoleillé et chaud. |
| Brandon: Listen to the conversation with English translation |
| Thomas: La météo d'aujourd'hui est bonne. |
| Thomas: The weather today is good. |
| Lise: Mais aujourd’hui le temps est nuageux. |
| Lise: But today it is cloudy. |
| Thomas : Exact, mais ce n'est pas la canicule et il ne pleut pas. |
| Thomas: Right, but it is not hot and not raining. |
| Lise : Le temps de demain est parfait, ensoleillé et chaud. |
| Lise: Tomorrow's forecast is perfect, warm and sunny. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Brandon: Yasmine, what’s the weather like in France? |
| Yasmine: France enjoys a temperate climate generally, and there are four climate regions in the country. |
| Brandon: What are those regions? |
| Yasmine: The Oceanic or océanique, continental or continental, Mediterranean or méditerranéen, and mountain or montagnard. Having four different regional climates means that the weather in France varies greatly depending on where you are. |
| Brandon: What’s your favorite climate? |
| Yasmine: I like the Mediterranean climate, because it’s a little cold, but you can still enjoy the sunshine and clear weather. |
| Brandon: That sounds nice! Now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Let’s take a look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson... |
| Brandon: The first word is.. |
| Yasmine: aujourd'hui [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: today |
| Yasmine: aujourd'hui [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: aujourd'hui [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: météo [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: weather forecast |
| Yasmine: météo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: météo [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: temps [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: time |
| Yasmine: temps [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: temps [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: nuageux [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: cloudy |
| Yasmine: nuageux [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: nuageux [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: exact [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: correct |
| Yasmine: exact [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: exact [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: canicule [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: heatwave |
| Yasmine: canicule [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: canicule [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: pleuvoir [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: to rain |
| Yasmine: pleuvoir [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: pleuvoir [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: demain [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: tomorrow |
| Yasmine: demain [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: demain [natural native speed] |
| Next we have.. |
| Yasmine: parfait [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: perfect |
| Yasmine: parfait [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: parfait [natural native speed] |
| and last is... |
| Yasmine: ensoleillé [natural native speed] |
| Brandon: sunny |
| Yasmine: ensoleillé [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Yasmine: ensoleillé [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Brandon: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Yasmine: canicule |
| Brandon: Which means "Heatwave". |
| Yasmine: Canicule is a noun you use in the formal language. Canicule is mainly used during the summer. |
| Brandon: It's a negative word, and most French people fear it. There are common expressions using this word, right? |
| Yasmine: There are. One common expression is c'est la canicule ! |
| Brandon: This means “It's a scorcher!” and you can use this if you're too hot. Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Yasmine: Sure. Les experts annoncent la canicule pour la semaine prochaine. |
| Brandon: "Experts predict a heat wave next week." And next we have.. |
| Yasmine: pleuvoir |
| Brandon: Which means "to rain". It’s an impersonal and irregular verb. Irregular verbs follow no specific rules for verb conjugation. |
| Yasmine: Pleuvoir has two meanings. |
| Brandon: The literal one is “to rain” and the metaphoric one is “to shower down.” Can you give us some examples please? |
| Yasmine: Sure. When it has the meaning of “to rain,” you can say Il pleut meaning |
| Brandon :“It's raining” |
| Yasmine: But in some idiomatic expressions, it’s used to mean “to shower down.” For example, we have Les questions pleuvent. |
| Brandon: “There are so many questions.” Literally, “It's raining questions.” |
| Yasmine: Please note that Pleuvoir is a common word and part of the formal language, so you can use this verb any time. |
| Brandon: And next we have... |
| Yasmine: ensoleillé |
| Brandon: Which means "sunny" |
| Yasmine: Ensoleillé is an adjective. It comes from the verb ensoleiller. In our dialogue, Ensoleillé means “sunny.” |
| Brandon: You can use this adjective to talk about a room or the weather. |
| Yasmine: Ensoleillé is formal, and it’s rarely used to mean “to brighten up”. |
| Brandon: It’s almost only used to speak about the weather. |
| Yasmine: When you talk to friends, it’s more natural to say il fait beau than il fait ensoleillé to say “The weather is nice.” |
| Brandon: Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Brandon: In this lesson, you'll learn about how to ask and talk about the weather in French. The weather is a great conversation opener that’s used daily by French people. It's a good way to break the ice. |
| Yamine: When you want to say “What’s the weather like today?”, you can say Quel temps il fait aujourd'hui ? or Il fait quel temps aujourd'hui ? |
| Brandon: Then, the other person will describe the weather in the future. |
| Yasmine: When describing the weather in French, the pattern you can use is Il va + Infinitive Verb of Weather, or Il va faire + Adjective. |
| Brandon: Please note that the sentences will be in the future tense, since it’s about something that’s not completed yet. Let’s look at some examples. I’ll give the English translation first, then Yasmine will give the French expression. Let’s start with "It will freeze." How do you say that in French? |
| Yasmine: It’s Il va givrer. |
| Brandon: And next is "It will snow." |
| Yasmine: You can replace givrer meaning “freeze” with the word neiger meaning “snow.” So it will be Il va neiger. |
| Brandon: What about “It will be bad"? |
| Yasmine: Il va faire mauvais. Note that we used the verb faire here. And if you want to say "It will be hot", the French will be Il va faire chaud. |
| Brandon: You can use the same pattern to say "It will be warm." and "It will be nice" |
| Yasmine: That’s right. Il va faire bon is the French sentence meaning "It will be warm" and Il va faire beau means "It will be nice" |
| Brandon: What would you say in a formal situation? |
| Yasmine: In that case, you might hear le temps est ensoleillé |
| Brandon: Which means "the climate is sunny" |
| Yasmine: or la journée est ensoleillée |
| Brando: which means "the day is sunny"... |
| Yasmin: ...In formal situations. Sometimes in colloquial French, you will encounter il fait soleil meaning "it is sunny", even though it’s not correct. You should use il y a du soleil meaning "it's sunny" or most commonly il fait beau, to say that the weather is sunny. |
| Brandon: Another way to describe the weather is to use a noun with an adjective. |
| Yasmine: As in mauvais temps aujourd'hui, meaning "bad weather today." |
| Brandon: The placement of the adjective varies according to the adjective's number of syllables or its grammatical root, or even according to its definition. There are two cases where French generally places adjectives after the noun. |
| Yasmine: That’s right. These are when they are descriptive, or when they have two or more syllables. For example, les jours pluvieux |
| Brandon: meaning "rainy days", which is descriptive. |
| Yasmine: or une après-midi ensoleillée |
| Brandon: meaning "a sunny afternoon", which has more than two syllables. |
Outro |
| Brandon: Well, that’s all for this lesson. To reinforce what you’ve learned here, please check the lesson notes. Thanks for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Yasmine: À bientôt! |
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