Talking about nature — the landscape and weather vocabulary
Build a picture of the natural world: landscapes, water, sky and weather, each with its gender.
Start with the world you can see. These nouns describe la nature (nature) — and notice each one comes with le (masculine, "the") or la (feminine, "the"). The gender matters because adjectives and pronouns later must agree with it.
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| la nature | la na-TĂśR | nature |
| la forĂŞt | la fo-REH | the forest |
| la montagne | la mon-TA-nyuh | the mountain |
| la rivière | la ree-VYAIR | the river |
| la mer | la mair | the sea |
| le fleuve | luh fluhv | the (large) river |
| la plage | la plazh | the beach |
| la campagne | la kom-PA-nyuh | the countryside |
| le ciel | luh syel | the sky |
| le soleil | luh so-LAY | the sun |
| l'arbre (m.) | LAR-bruh | the tree |
| la fleur | la flur | the flower |
Weather (le temps) is part of this theme too. Examiners often link weather to climate change, so keep these ready. French uses the verb faire (to make/do) for most weather: il fait literally means "it makes".
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| il fait beau | eel feh boh | the weather is nice |
| il fait chaud | eel feh show | it is hot |
| il fait froid | eel feh frwa | it is cold |
| il pleut | eel pluh | it is raining |
| il neige | eel nezh | it is snowing |
| le climat | luh klee-MA | the climate |
Worked mini-example — describing a place. To say "I love the countryside because it is beautiful and calm" you build: J'aime la campagne parce qu'elle est belle et calme. (zhem la kom-PA-nyuh par-skel eh bel ay kalm). Note elle (it/she) replaces the feminine la campagne, and belle is the feminine of beau (beautiful).
- Nature nouns carry a gender: la forĂŞt, la mer, le ciel, **l'**arbre (m.).
- Weather uses faire: il fait beau (nice), il fait chaud (hot), il fait froid (cold).
- il pleut (it rains) and il neige (it snows) are single fixed verbs.
- Replace a feminine noun with elle, a masculine with il.