Le joli mois de mai (part 2): the weather / le temps qu'il fait

Bonjour! Aujourd'hui, une leçon pour niveau A1 -and a good review for A2.

Mai! C'est si joli!

Mai est un mois très agréable. On l'appelle "le joli mois de mai": le printemps est une réalité! Les beaux jours sont arrivés! May is a very pleasant month. We call it "pretty month of May": Spring is a reality, the nice days have arrived!

Aujourd'hui, nous parlons du temps! 
Today we talk about the weather!

To listen to the DYI audio, click below!

Vocabulary:
Le temps: as you know, "temps" means "time"... Well, it also means "weather". 
- Note the phonetics: "Temps" (you do not hear the "p" nor the "s")
The masculine adjective "beau" means good-looking or beautiful. It's also used to talk about good weather.
le beau temps ("boh-tãh") good / nice weather
mauvais ("moh-veh") bad
le mauvais temps bad weather

chaud (m.) / chaude (f.) warm / hot
froid (m.) / froide (f.) cold
- note that in the masculine, you don't hear the final letter, "d". You hear the "d" in the feminine, however, because the final vowel, "e", makes the "d" appear. 
froid = frwah / froide = frwahD 
chaud = shoh / chaude = shohD

Attention! To talk about outside temperature (It's hot, cold...) : don't use "c'est" but: "il fait". 
- Il fait is a conjugation of the verb "faire" ("to make" / "to do").
The first meaning of "Il fait" is: "he does" or "it does"!. -Basically, when you want to say that it's nice out, you literally say "it does beautiful".

- Il fait beau it's nice out
- Il fait chaud it's warm / hot out
- Il fait froid it's cold out
- Il fait quel temps? What's the weather like?
In this case, "il" doesn't mean "he" but "it".
Other sentences with impersonal "il" :
- Il pleut it's raining
- Il y a means there is
Il y a du soleil it's sunny (lit: there is sun)
Il y a du vent it's windy (lit: there is wind)
Il y a des nuages it's cloudy
The infinitive of "Il pleut" is the verb pleuvoir (to rain)
la pluie is the noun: the rain
le soleil the sun
briller to shine
le soleil brille the sun is shining
le vent the wind
le ciel the sky
les nuages the clouds
bleu (m.) / bleue (f.) blue
gris (m.) / grise (f.) grey
un jour a day / one day
Aujourd'hui today

A special focus on 3 words with a challenging pronunciation:
- le vent (/vã/) (mispronounced, it can sound like "le vin" -wine)
- la pluie (lah-plwee) the rain
- il pleut (eel-pluh) it's raining

One more thing. We have just learned to describe the weather. But for talking about oneself, say that you feel warm or cold, you use the verb "avoir", "to have".
>>> In French we ARE not cold or hot, we HAVE cold or heat. (This is very important because you don't want to end up telling someone that you are a cold or hot person!!! )
Conjugation of avoir:
J'ai, tu as, il/elle/on a
nous avons, vous avez, ils/elles ont

- J'ai froid I am cold (lit: I have cold)
- J'ai chaud I am hot (lit: I have heat)

Exercice!

1- place the missing word in each sentence
2- find the meaning of each sentence

... or start by listening! Click on the player:

1- Aujourd'hui, le soleil brille, il fait beau et j' ... temps ai froid pleut vent chaud.
= ... What's the weather like today? It's not raining, the sun is shining! Today, the sky is grey, it's cloudy, it's windy: I'm cold! Today, the sun is shining, it's nice out and I'm hot. Here, one day it's hot, one day it's cold! On pretty days, I have a picnic in a park.
2- Les jours de beau ... temps ai froid pleut vent , je fais un pique-nique dans un parc.
=  ... What's the weather like today? It's not raining, the sun is shining! Today, the sky is grey, it's cloudy, it's windy: I'm cold! Today, the sun is shining, it's nice out and I'm hot. Here, one day it's hot, one day it's cold! On pretty days, I have a picnic in a park.
3- Aujourd'hui, le ciel est gris, il y a des nuages, il y a du ... temps ai froid pleut vent : j'ai froid!
=  ... What's the weather like today? It's not raining, the sun is shining! Today, the sky is grey, it's cloudy, it's windy: I'm cold! Today, the sun is shining, it's nice out and I'm hot. Here, one day it's hot, one day it's cold! On pretty days, I have a picnic in a park.
4- Ici, un jour il fait chaud, un jour il fait ... temps ai froid pleut vent !
=  ... What's the weather like today? It's not raining, the sun is shining! Today, the sky is grey, it's cloudy, it's windy: I'm cold! Today, the sun is shining, it's nice out and I'm hot. Here, one day it's hot, one day it's cold! On pretty days, I have a picnic in a park.
5- Il fait quel temps aujourd'hui? Il ne ... temps ai froid pleut vent pas, le soleil brille!
=  ... What's the weather like today? It's not raining, the sun is shining! Today, the sky is grey, it's cloudy, it's windy: I'm cold! Today, the sun is shining, it's nice out and I'm hot. Here, one day it's hot, one day it's cold! On pretty days, I have a picnic in a park.

Pour les réponses, cliquez ici!

Crédit: J'ai trouvé l'illustration dans un blog magnifique: Japonisme. Allez le visiter!

Leçon, audio et exercices ©Sandrine de Paris