Weather: Grammar and Phonics (AQA GCSE French): Revision Note
Exam code: 8652
To be able to talk about the weather, impersonal structures and verbs are essential, and you should also be able to use them in different tenses. Let’s look at these in more detail.
Impersonal structures
Use impersonal verbs and structures to talk about the weather
Impersonal verbs and structures are only used with the pronoun il meaning ‘it’ in French, never ‘I’, ‘you’ etc.
Impersonal verbs and structures often do not translate word-for-word into English
impersonal structure | weather phrase | English |
il fait + adjective | il fait beau | it’s nice weather |
il fait mauvais | it’s bad weather | |
il fait chaud | it’s hot | |
il fait froid | it’s cold | |
il + verb | il neige | it snows / it is snowing |
il pleut | it rains / it is raining | |
il y a + noun | il y a du brouillard | it’s foggy |
il y a du soleil | it’s sunny | |
il y a du vent | it’s windy |
Use the imperfect tense to describe what the weather was like
Use the simple future tense to describe what the weather will be like
imperfect tense | simple future tense | ||
weather phrase | English | weather phrase | English |
il faisait beau | it was nice weather / the weather was nice | il fera beau | it / the weather will be nice |
il faisait mauvais | it was bad weather / the weather was bad | il fera mauvais | it / the weather will be bad |
il faisait chaud | it was hot | il fera chaud | it will be hot |
il faisait froid | it was cold | il fera froid | it will be cold |
il y avait du brouillard | it was foggy | il y aura du brouillard | it will be foggy |
il y avait du soleil | it was sunny | il y aura du soleil | it will be sunny |
il y avait du vent | it was windy | il y aura du vent | it will be windy |
Weather: phonics
The French sound [ou] is pronounced as in
brouillard
Examiner Tips and Tricks
It is important to know how to say and spell French words accurately. The sound covered here can appear in any words throughout the course.
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