Weather in French: il fait, il pleut, il y a and forecasts

The essential weather phrases

The question is Quel temps fait-il ? or, more informally, Il fait quel temps ? In the pronunciation column, (n) marks a nasal vowel, “zh” is the s of “measure”, and “ü” is an “ee” said with rounded lips.

Final consonants are silent in fait, chaud, froid, doux and gris. In everyday speech, il y a is often shortened to something like “yah”.

Il fait, il y a or a verb?

1. Il fait + adjective. il fait beau, il fait chaud, il fait froid, il fait lourd (it’s muggy). “Very” is très: il fait très froid. Il fait bon also exists: it means pleasantly warm.
2. Il y a + partitive article. il y a du soleil, du vent, du brouillard, de la pluie, de la neige, des nuages, un orage (a thunderstorm). In the negative, the article becomes de: il n’y a pas de vent.
3. Weather verbs with an empty il. il pleut (pleuvoir), il neige, il gèle (it’s freezing), il grêle (it’s hailing). The il refers to nothing, just like English “it”.
4. No continuous tense. “It’s raining” is just il pleut. Il est en train de pleuvoir exists, but only to insist on “right now”.
5. Le temps and la météo. Le temps means both weather and time; la météo is the forecast, and informally the weather itself. Le climat is the climate.

In France, you will also hear il fait du soleil and il fait du vent in casual speech, and il fait soleil is common in Quebec. Teach il y a du soleil, but don’t mark the others as mistakes in speaking.

Temperatures

France and the whole French-speaking world use degrees Celsius. In Canada you may still hear Fahrenheit informally, for example for ovens.

• Il fait 20 degrés. Informally: Il fait 20.
• Il fait moins cinq. It’s minus five.
• Il fait zéro degré. Note the singular after zéro.
• Quelle température fait-il ? What’s the temperature?

On paper, French writes a decimal comma and a space before the degree sign: 20,5 °C, read vingt virgule cinq degrés.

1. Il fait chaud is the weather. Aujourd’hui, il fait très chaud.
2. J’ai chaud is how you feel. “I’m hot” and “I’m cold” use avoir: j’ai chaud, j’ai froid.
3. Je suis chaud is a mistake. Depending on context it can mean “I’m up for it” or have a sexual meaning. Steer pupils firmly to j’ai chaud.

Forecasts: la météo

The forecast is la météo, le bulletin météo or les prévisions. Météo-France issues weather warnings on a colour scale: vigilance jaune, orange or rouge.

Demain, il va pleuvoir dans le nord.Tomorrow it’s going to rain in the north.

Ce week-end, il fera beau et chaud.This weekend it will be nice and hot.

Il y aura des orages l’après-midi.There will be thunderstorms in the afternoon.

Hier, il a plu et il faisait froid.Yesterday it rained and it was cold.

Forecast vocabulary: des averses (showers), des éclaircies (sunny spells), un ciel couvert (overcast sky), du verglas (black ice), une canicule (a heatwave), une vague de froid (a cold snap).

In the past, the event goes in the passé composé (il a plu, il a neigé, il a fait beau) and the description in the imperfect (il faisait chaud, il pleuvait, il y avait du vent). Note that plu is the past participle of pleuvoir.

Regional words and idioms

• Belgium: il drache (it’s pouring down).
• Quebec, informal: il fait frette (it’s freezing cold), il mouille (it’s raining), la poudrerie (blowing snow), la sloche (slush).
• Everywhere: il pleut des cordes (it’s raining cats and dogs), il fait un froid de canard (it’s bitterly cold), il fait un temps de chien (the weather’s awful).

Typical mistakes of English-speaking learners

• “Il est chaud”, “c’est froid” for the weather: use il fait.
• “Je suis froid”: it is j’ai froid.
• “Il fait pluie”, “il fait neige”: rain and snow are verbs: il pleut, il neige.
• Missing partitive: “il y a vent” instead of il y a du vent.
• Pronunciation: sounding the final letters of froid or chaud, and confusing il pleut (it’s raining) with il pleure (he’s crying).
• Le temps translated as “the time” in a weather text, or “what time” answered with the weather.

In class: a daily weather routine

The weather changes every day, which makes it perfect for a start-of-lesson routine: the same structures come back with a real reason to use them.

1. Show a city with today’s real weather, for example Marseille, sun, 24 °C.
2. Ask Quel temps fait-il à Marseille ?
3. The class answers: À Marseille, il fait beau et il fait 24 degrés.
4. Reveal the model sentence so pupils check il fait, il y a or the verb.
5. End with Et ici ? In the UK, Ici, il pleut rarely goes out of date.

This is exactly what a daily routine does: a short, real question, a collective answer and an instant correction.

Alongside it: a forecaster role-play on a map of France, a weather-and-clothes game (S’il pleut, je prends un parapluie.), or a comparison between Paris and Nouméa on the same day.

Adapting to your class

• A1One phrase: Il fait beau.
• A2Two details and the temperature: Il y a du soleil et il fait 25 degrés.
• B1Yesterday and tomorrow: Hier, il a plu ; demain, il va faire froid.
• B2Explain and hope: À Nouméa, il fait chaud parce que c’est bientôt l’été. Pourvu qu’il fasse beau demain !

At KS2, keep to a handful of phrases with gestures. At KS3, work on il fait against il y a and the partitive. At GCSE, weather is a natural route into the imperfect and the future.

Frequently asked questions