Module 9 of 10
The weather, and small talk that costs nothing
Il fait, and the four or five lines that fill a lift ride.
Weather in French is something it does: il fait beau, il fait froid, il fait chaud, il fait mauvais. Rain and snow break the pattern and get their own verbs — il pleut, il neige — and there is no il fait in front of them. The il here is nobody; it is the same empty il as in il y a, and trying to work out who is making the weather is a dead end.
The reason this module exists is not meteorology. Small talk is the part of a language that keeps a conversation open while your brain assembles the next real sentence, and weather is its cheapest form. Ça va ? answered with Ça va, merci, et vous ? is a complete exchange that costs you nothing and buys you a few seconds. Learners who skip this and go straight for complicated sentences end up with better grammar and shorter conversations.
Played by your device’s own French voice. It is a synthetic voice, not a recording of a teacher — close enough to learn the shape of a word, not close enough to copy exactly.
- Il fait beauThe weather is nice
- Il fait froidIt is cold
- Il fait chaudIt is hot
- Il pleutIt is raining — one word, no il fait
- Il neigeIt is snowing
- Quel temps fait-il ?What is the weather like?
- Ça va ?All right? — a greeting and a question at once
- Ça va, merci. Et vous ?Fine, thanks. And you?
Il fait for most weather, il pleut and il neige on their own. Small talk is not filler — it is the time you need to think.