Il pleut et il fait froid.It's raining and it's cold.
When French talks about the weather or the clock, the subject is il — a fixed, meaningless il with no person or thing behind it, just like it in it's raining.
Quick shortcut: weather and time run on il + a verb, and the il never changes. Il est huit heures. Il fait beau. Il pleut.
The impersonal il
This il doesn't stand for anyone or anything. It matches English it in it's late or it's snowing — a placeholder that fills the subject slot so the sentence has one.
It never changes: no elle, no plural ils, no agreement. The verb stays in the third-person singular. French uses it mainly for the time, the weather, and a few set expressions such as il faut ("it is necessary"), which comes later.
Telling the time: il est…
The clock runs on il est + the hour (the verb être):
- Il est une heure. (It's one o'clock.)
- Il est deux heures et quart. (It's a quarter past two.)
- Il est sept heures et demie. (It's half past seven.)
- Il est midi. / Il est minuit. (It's midday / midnight.)
- Quelle heure est-il ? (What time is it?)
The word heure(s) is written out and takes a plural -s after two or more (une heure, trois heures), but il itself stays put.
For clock time French keeps il est and does not use c'est: ✅ Il est trois heures, never ❌ C'est trois heures. (C'est does appear in C'est l'heure de partir "it's time to leave" — a different meaning.)
Weather with il fait…
Most weather descriptions use il fait + an adjective (the verb faire, "to do / make", used impersonally):
| French | English |
|---|---|
| Il fait beau. | The weather's nice. |
| Il fait mauvais. | The weather's bad. |
| Il fait chaud. | It's hot. |
| Il fait froid. | It's cold. |
| Il fait frais. | It's cool. |
| Il fait doux. | It's mild. |
The temperature uses the same frame: Il fait 25 degrés. Il fait moins deux. Ask about the weather with Quel temps fait-il ? ("What's the weather like?"). The same il fait also gives Il fait jour / Il fait nuit (it's light / dark outside).
Sun, wind, fog and the like are nouns, not adjectives, so they go through il y a instead (see below) — il y a du soleil, not il fait du soleil in standard French.
Weather verbs: il pleut, il neige
Some weather has its own verb, and in that weather meaning the verb is impersonal — the subject is always il, never a person:
- Il pleut. (It's raining.) — from pleuvoir
- Il neige. (It's snowing.) — from neiger
- Il gèle. (It's freezing.) — from geler
You can't say je pleus about yourself. (A couple of these verbs do have non-weather uses with ordinary subjects — L'eau gèle, "the water freezes" — but that's outside this topic.) The weather forms also run through other tenses: Il pleuvait ("it was raining").
Weather with il y a…
To say a weather condition is present — wind, sun, fog and so on — French often uses il y a + that noun:
- Il y a du vent. (It's windy.)
- Il y a du soleil. (It's sunny.)
- Il y a du brouillard. (It's foggy.)
- Il y a des nuages. (It's cloudy.)
- Il y a de l'orage. (There's a storm.)
Il pleut, though, has no il y a version — the closest is Il y a de la pluie.
Il fait froid vs j'ai froid
French chooses the verb by who or what feels the cold or heat:
- The air / the weather: il fait — Il fait froid aujourd'hui.
- A person: avoir — J'ai froid. (I'm cold.) Tu as chaud ? (Are you hot?)
- A thing: être — La soupe est froide. (The soup is cold.)
So one English pattern, "… is cold", splits into three French verbs. It's ✅ Il fait froid for the weather and ✅ J'ai froid for a person, never ❌ Il est froid for the weather or ❌ Je suis froid for a person.
Common mistakes
- ❌ Il est froid (about the weather) → ✅ Il fait froid
- ❌ C'est trois heures → ✅ Il est trois heures
- ❌ Elle est midi / Ils sont deux heures → ✅ Il est midi / Il est deux heures (the subject is always il)
- ❌ Je suis froid (for "I'm cold") → ✅ J'ai froid
- ❌ Il fait pluie → ✅ Il pleut / Il y a de la pluie
- ❌ Il y a chaud → ✅ Il fait chaud
Quick check
Fill in with il est, il fait, il y a, or il neige.
- ____ beau aujourd'hui, on peut sortir.
- ____ minuit, je vais dormir.
- Regarde par la fenêtre : ____ ! (it's snowing)
- ____ du brouillard ce matin.
- Quelle heure ____ ?
Show answers
- Il fait beau aujourd'hui, on peut sortir. 2. Il est minuit, je vais dormir. 3. Regarde par la fenêtre : il neige ! 4. Il y a du brouillard ce matin. 5. Quelle heure est-il ?
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Key takeaways
- Weather and clock time use il as a fixed, meaningless subject — never elle, never plural, no agreement, verb always third-person singular.
- Time: il est + the hour — Il est huit heures. Quelle heure est-il ? Not c'est.
- Weather, most cases: il fait + adjective — Il fait beau / froid / chaud. Ask Quel temps fait-il ?
- Weather verbs il pleut / il neige / il gèle are impersonal in their weather meaning — the subject is always il.
- il y a + noun also covers many conditions: il y a du vent / du soleil / des nuages.
- Cold and hot depend on who feels them: weather = il fait, a person = j'ai, a thing = être. ✅ Il fait froid, ❌ Il est froid.