Learn the key pattern to talk about basic weather conditions
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| Let’s take a closer look at the conversation. |
| Do you remember how Mathilde asks, |
| "How’s the weather?" |
| Quel temps fait-il ? |
| [BREAKDOWN] |
| Let’s start with the word temps, meaning "weather." Temps (enunciated). Temps. |
| In French, all nouns have grammatical gender and are either singular or plural. Temps is masculine and singular — a fact which will determine the form of other words in the sentence. |
| Before temps is quel. "What." Quel (enunciated). Quel. |
| Quel is masculine and singular to agree with temps. |
| Together, it’s Quel temps, "What weather." Quel temps. |
| Next is fait-il, literally, "makes it," but translates as "is it," in this context. fait-il. |
| First is fait, translating as "is," in this context. Fait (enunciated). Fait. |
| Note: fait is from the verb faire, meaning "to do," or "to make," but in this instance, when talking about the weather, it translates as "to be." Faire. |
| After fait is the subject pronoun, il. Translating as, "It," in this context. Il (clearly enunciated). Il. |
| Notice the word order when asking a question: verb, "fait," followed by the subject, "il." “fait-il.” |
| When this inverted word order occurs in French, there must be a hyphen between the verb and the subject, as in fait-il. |
| All together, it’s Quel temps fait-il? Literally, "what weather makes it?" but translates as, "How's the weather?" |
| Quel temps fait-il ? |
| Pronunciation note: notice the rising intonation indicating a question. |
| Quel temps fait-il ? |
| Let’s take a closer look at the response. |
| Do you remember how Karen says, |
| "It's nice weather?" |
| Il fait beau. |
| First is Il. "It." Il (enunciated). Il. |
| Next is fait. Translating as "Is," in this context. Fait. (enunciated). Fait. |
| Last is beau, "beautiful," or "nice," as in nice weather. Beau. (enunciated). Beau. |
| All together, it’s Il fait beau. literally, "It does nice weather," but it translates as "It's nice weather." Il fait beau. |
| The pattern is |
| Il fait {weather adjective}. |
| It is {weather adjective}. |
| Il fait {weather adjective}. |
| To use this pattern, simply replace the { adjective } placeholder with a suitable adjective. |
| In this lesson, you'll learn adjectives related to the weather that you can use with this pattern. |
| Imagine it's “bad weather,” mauvais. Mauvais (enunciated). Mauvais. |
| Say |
| "It's bad weather." |
| Ready? |
| Il fait mauvais. |
| "It's bad weather." |
| Il fait mauvais. |
| In French, you can’t use any adjective with the construction, il fait. It’s restricted to a small set of adjectives, such as the adjectives covered in this lesson and some others: |
| Chaud, “hot,” froid, “cold,” “frais,” cool, lourd, “heavy, sultry,” gris, “grey.” |
| When talking about the weather, it’s common to use some impersonal verbs in French. Impersonal verbs are verbs without a fully stated subject, and which are conjugated in the third person singular. |
| For example,"It’s raining" in French is Il pleut. |
| Il pleut, literally, "It rains," but translates as "It’s raining." Il pleut. |
| First is il. "It." Il (clearly enunciated). Il. |
| Next is pleut, "rains," as in "It rains." pleut. |
| Pleut is from the verb, pleuvoir, "to rain." Pleuvoir. |
| Together, Il pleut. Literally, “It rains,” but it translates as, "It’s raining." Il pleut. |
| Pay attention. You’ll see another example of this pattern shortly. |
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