In the pronunciation column, (n) marks a nasal vowel: air goes through the nose and the n itself is not pronounced. The stressed syllable is in capitals, but French stress is light: keep the syllables even.<\/p>\n\n Silent letters are the trap here. In printemps<\/span>, neither the p nor the s is pronounced: the word ends on a nasal vowel. In automne<\/span>, the m is silent, so it rhymes with bonne<\/span>. In hiver<\/span>, the h is silent and the final r is sounded.<\/p>\n\n Because \u00e9t\u00e9<\/span>, automne<\/span> and hiver<\/span> begin with a vowel sound, the article becomes l’<\/span>, and liaisons appear: en \u00e9t\u00e9<\/span> sounds like “ah(n)-nay-TAY”, les hivers<\/span> like “lay-zee-VAIR”.<\/p>\n\n The word for “season” is la saison<\/span>, which is feminine, even though all four seasons are masculine: les quatre saisons<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n A handy trick for pupils: au printemps<\/span> is the odd one out. Learn it as a fixed chunk, like a song title, and use en<\/span> everywhere else.<\/p>\n\n Other useful phrases: au d\u00e9but de l’\u00e9t\u00e9<\/span> (at the beginning of summer), \u00e0 la fin de l’hiver<\/span> (at the end of winter), pendant l’hiver<\/span> (during the winter), en plein \u00e9t\u00e9<\/span> (in the middle of summer).<\/p>\n\n In everyday French the seasons follow the astronomical calendar: equinoxes (l’\u00e9quinoxe<\/span>) and solstices (le solstice<\/span>). The exact day moves slightly from year to year, so these dates are approximate.<\/p>\n\n Meteorologists also count meteorological seasons from the 1st of the month: 1 March, 1 June, 1 September and 1 December in the northern hemisphere.<\/p>\n\n Several French territories are south of the equator: La R\u00e9union, Mayotte, New Caledonia and French Polynesia. There, l’\u00e9t\u00e9<\/span> runs over December, January and February, and Christmas is a summer holiday.<\/p>\n\n In the tropics, people talk about a dry season and a rainy season rather than four seasons. In the French Caribbean, the dry season is called le car\u00eame<\/span> and the rainy season l’hivernage<\/span>. In Senegal too, l’hivernage<\/span> is the rainy season. It is a false friend for pupils, as it has nothing to do with winter cold.<\/p>\n\n In Quebec, a warm spell in autumn is l’\u00e9t\u00e9 des Indiens<\/span>; in France you will hear l’\u00e9t\u00e9 indien<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n En hiver, il fait froid et il neige parfois.<\/span>In winter it’s cold and it sometimes snows.<\/small><\/p>\n\n Ma saison pr\u00e9f\u00e9r\u00e9e, c’est l’\u00e9t\u00e9, parce qu’il n’y a pas d’\u00e9cole.<\/span>My favourite season is summer, because there’s no school.<\/small><\/p>\n\n L’automne commence en septembre.<\/span>Autumn starts in September.<\/small><\/p>\n\n L’\u00e9t\u00e9 dernier, je suis all\u00e9 en Bretagne.<\/span>Last summer I went to Brittany.<\/small><\/p>\n\n A class that says the date at the start of every lesson can add the season in a few seconds. That turns one lesson on the seasons into dozens of short, meaningful repetitions.<\/p>\n\n This is exactly what a daily routine does: the season stops being a vocabulary list and becomes part of a sentence pupils say every day.<\/p>\n\n Alongside the routine, try a survey (Quelle est ta saison pr\u00e9f\u00e9r\u00e9e ? Pourquoi ?<\/span>), seasons and clothes (En hiver, je porte un bonnet.<\/span>), or a chant that drills au printemps, en \u00e9t\u00e9, en automne, en hiver<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n At KS2, pictures and a song are enough. At KS3, drill au printemps<\/span> against en \u00e9t\u00e9<\/span> until it is automatic. At GCSE, use the seasons to practise tenses: L’\u00e9t\u00e9 dernier\u2026<\/span>, L’hiver prochain, je vais\u2026<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Printemps, \u00e9t\u00e9, automne, hiver: silent letters, au printemps \/ en \u00e9t\u00e9, cet \u00e9t\u00e9, and a routine to use the seasons every lesson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"menu_order":6,"template":"","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"Seasons in French: Names, Au and En | VocaDial","_seopress_titles_desc":"The four seasons in French with pronunciation, why it's au printemps but en \u00e9t\u00e9, when each season starts, and a daily routine for your classroom.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_vd_topic":"saisons","_vd_target":"fr","_vd_module":"fecha","_vd_level":"A1","_vd_minutes":"6","_vd_card_word":"printemps\u2026","_vd_answer":"The four seasons in French are le printemps<\/span> (spring), l'\u00e9t\u00e9<\/span> (summer), l'automne<\/span> (autumn) and l'hiver<\/span> (winter). All four are masculine and written in lower case. \"In spring\" is au printemps<\/span>; for the other three you use en<\/span>: en \u00e9t\u00e9<\/span>, en automne<\/span>, en hiver<\/span>.","_vd_faq":"[{\"q\":\"What are the four seasons in French?\",\"a\":\"Le printemps<\\\/span> (spring), l'\u00e9t\u00e9<\\\/span> (summer), l'automne<\\\/span> (autumn) and l'hiver<\\\/span> (winter). All four are masculine.\"},{\"q\":\"Why is it au printemps but en \u00e9t\u00e9?\",\"a\":\"Printemps<\\\/span> starts with a consonant, so it takes au<\\\/span>. \u00c9t\u00e9<\\\/span>, automne<\\\/span> and hiver<\\\/span> start with a vowel sound, so they take en<\\\/span>.\"},{\"q\":\"How do you pronounce automne?\",\"a\":\"The m is silent: roughly \\\"oh-TON\\\", rhyming with bonne<\\\/span>.\"},{\"q\":\"How do you say \\\"this summer\\\" in French?\",\"a\":\"Cet \u00e9t\u00e9<\\\/span>. Before a vowel sound, ce<\\\/span> becomes cet<\\\/span>: cet automne<\\\/span>, cet hiver<\\\/span>, but ce printemps<\\\/span>.\"},{\"q\":\"Are the seasons capitalised in French?\",\"a\":\"No. They are written in lower case, except at the beginning of a sentence.\"}]","_vd_key":"saisons-fr","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-61","vd_ressource","type-vd_ressource","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vd_ressource\/61","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vd_ressource"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/vd_ressource"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vd_ressource\/61\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vocadial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}French<\/th> English<\/th> Say it like<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> le printemps<\/td> spring<\/td> luh pra(n)-TAH(N)<\/td><\/tr> l’\u00e9t\u00e9<\/td> summer<\/td> lay-TAY<\/td><\/tr> l’automne<\/td> autumn<\/td> loh-TON<\/td><\/tr> l’hiver<\/td> winter<\/td> lee-VAIR<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n Au printemps, en \u00e9t\u00e9: the prepositions<\/h2>\n\n
When do the seasons start?<\/h2>\n\n
Season<\/th> Northern hemisphere (France, Belgium, Quebec)<\/th> Southern hemisphere (R\u00e9union, New Caledonia)<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> spring<\/td> around 20 March<\/td> around 22 or 23 September<\/td><\/tr> summer<\/td> around 21 June<\/td> around 21 or 22 December<\/td><\/tr> autumn<\/td> around 22 or 23 September<\/td> around 20 March<\/td><\/tr> winter<\/td> around 21 or 22 December<\/td> around 21 June<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n Seasons across the French-speaking world<\/h3>\n\n
Words that go with the seasons<\/h2>\n\n
Typical mistakes of English-speaking learners<\/h2>\n\n
In class: the season in the date routine<\/h2>\n\n
Adapting to your class<\/h3>\n\n