Weather uses fixed impersonal 'il'
French weather uses the impersonal 'il' (like English 'it' in 'it is raining'): it never becomes ils, whatever the subject nearby. Two patterns: il fait + adjective or du + noun (il fait chaud, il fait du soleil) and il y a + du/des/un + noun (il y a du brouillard, il y a un orage). Two special verbs are used only in the il form: il pleut (it's raining), il neige (it's snowing). Full weather table in the note.
Seasons: au printemps, en été/automne/hiver
The four seasons take a fixed 'in' preposition. au printemps is the exception (à + le → au; printemps starts with a consonant); the other three begin with a vowel sound and take en with NO article: en été, en automne, en hiver (never en l'été). Key environment vocab: le changement climatique, le réchauffement de la planète, la pollution, protéger l'environnement. Full list in the note.
Drawn from real examiner reports.
Weather 'il' is a dummy subject, not 'he'
Because il is also 'he', learners assume a weather sentence needs a 'real' subject and attach the verb to a nearby noun — ✗ le temps fait beau for ✓ il fait beau — or pluralise it (✗ ils font beau). Weather il is a dummy subject (like 'it' in 'it's raining'): it refers to nothing and never changes. il y a and il faudrait are impersonal in the same way.
Don't pluralise weather 'il' to 'ils'
Because il also means 'he', learners try to make weather agree with a nearby plural — ✗ les jours, ils font beau → ✓ les jours, il fait beau. Weather il is impersonal: it refers to no person or thing, so it never becomes ils. Examiners flag this verb-form error on every Writing and Speaking component.
Verb-form accuracy is named scoring-critical in every Writing sitting (s22/w22/s23/w23); the impersonal-il weather form is a general FL trap.
un orage (storm) ≠ une orange (fruit)
Orage (storm) and orange (fruit/colour) look and sound alike but are different, correctly-spelled words — so swapping them is NOT a tolerable minor slip; it changes the meaning and loses the mark. ✓ Il y a un orage = there's a storm. ✗ une orange = an orange (the fruit). Memory hook: orage has no 'n', orange does.
Cited w22 Reading P2 Q4(i): 'orange' written for 'orage', a real-word swap that lost the mark.
il faudrait takes no personal subject
il faudrait (it would be necessary to / one should) is impersonal, like weather il, and never takes a personal subject: ✗ je faudrait → ✓ il faudrait recycler plus. Use il faudrait + infinitive (or il faudrait que...) for recommendations. Candidates who attach it to je produce an ungrammatical mix that undermines an otherwise good environment answer.
Cited w23 Writing P4 Q3(b) Task 5: il faudrait misused with a personal subject, reported as 'very challenging'.
Stay on-task on environment prompts
A 'protect the environment' prompt wants the specific angle asked. Weaker candidates answer a targeted environment task with unrelated content — outdoor sport instead of environmental action — and lose relevance marks. Read exactly what the task asks (a cause? a solution? an opinion?) and answer that with accurate topic vocabulary.
Cited s22 Writing P4 Q3(a); w23 Writing P4 Q3(b): general 'protecting nature' answers conflated with the specific task asked.
il fait + adj vs il y a + noun
Two weather frames, not interchangeable. il fait + adjective, or du + noun, for general conditions and temperature: ✓ il fait chaud, ✓ il fait beau, ✓ il fait du soleil. il y a + du/des/un + noun for phenomena: ✓ il y a du brouillard, ✓ il y a un orage. ✗ il y a chaud mixes the two frames — temperature always takes il fait.
general FL trap
Two-check sweep before you submit
Before submitting, run two checks: every weather verb stays in the il form (no stray ils, no real subject like le temps fait...), and any 'storm' is spelt orage, not orange. One wrong letter or a pluralised il turns a correct idea into an unrewardable error.
Three-move weather/season answer
Build a weather answer in three moves: (1) season + fixed preposition (en été, au printemps); (2) weather with 'il', never changed (il fait chaud); (3) one linked consequence to extend it (comme il fait beau, on va à la plage).
Environment: problem + impersonal fix
For environment prompts, name the problem, then the impersonal solution: la pollution est un grand problème + il faudrait recycler plus. Use il faudrait + infinitive, never a personal subject, and answer the exact angle asked — not vague 'protect nature' filler.
This topic covers describing the weather, the seasons, and the natural world/environment — vocabulary and structures that appear across Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing tasks about climate, holidays, and environmental issues.
Weather with il fait / il y a / special verbs:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| Il fait beau. | It's nice weather. |
| Il fait mauvais. | The weather's bad. |
| Il fait chaud. | It's hot. |
| Il fait froid. | It's cold. |
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