Telling the Weather in French

Do you know how to ask about the weather in French? Talking about the weather isn’t just important for small talk, it’s an aspect of everyday life! The weather dictates how you dress outside, what you can do, and even where you can go. Today we’ll go over some introductory phrases every French learner should know.

How to Talk about the Weather in French?

La Météo (lah maytayo) – The Weather Forecast

Quel temps fait-il? (Kel temp fay teel) – How is the weather? What’s the weather like?

Il fait chaud (eel fay sho) – It’s warm / it’s hot
Il fait froid (eel fay fwa) – It’s cold
Il fait beau (eel fay boh) – It’s nice out
Il fait du soleil (eel fay do solay) – It’s sunny
Il fait mauvais (eel fay moevay) – It’s bad outside, it’s nasty outside
Il fait gris (eel fay gree) – It’s gray outside, it’s dreary
Il fait du vent (eel fay do ven) – It’s windy
Il fait nuageux (eel fay noajee-euh) – It’s cloudy outside
Il fait # degrés (eel fay [#] deh-gray) – It’s ___ degrees outside.
The degrees are assumed to be in celsius unless otherwise stated.

Il pleut (eel pluh) – It’s raining
Il neige (eel nejuh) – It’s snowing

So in English when we say “it is raining,” what does the it stand for? It’s a placeholder for the subject. In French, il, assumes this function and is used in expressions without a specific subject. This is known as the impersonal il.

How to Talk about the Weather in the Past?

When talking about weather in the past tense then we use the imparfait because we’re describing events in the past. Don’t worry this isn’t complicated, we only need to conjugate the verb differently.

Il a fait chaud / faisait chaud – It was hot

So if you see fait above, replace it with “faisait” to denote the past. The exceptions being the verbs describing raining and snowing.

Il pleuvait (eel pluh-vay) – It was raining.
Il neigeait (eel nay-jay) – It was snowing.

Example Video:
This is a video of a normal weather forecast, courtesy of BFMTV. Hopefully you’ll get the gist! If not, don’t be discouraged, there’s always room for improvement.

Well that’s everything for now. Comments can be left below without any special subscription required.