"Il y a du soleil et du vent."
Translation:It is sunny and windy.
26 Comments
1718
"C'est" is never used when talking about the weather. There are several possible expressions, all impersonal: il pleut, il neige, il y a du vent, il y a du brouillard, the temps est nuageux, etc. https://www.thoughtco.com/french-weather-vocabulary-le-temps-1371465
"Il y a" translates to 'there is' (literally "it has there") while "c'est" means 'it/this/that is'. So the sentence literally means "There is sun and wind".
- 1631
when talking about the weather in French there are a variety of constructs you can use. Typically the following guidelines apply:
il fait + non weather specific adjective (beau, mauvais, chaud, froid, humide, frais, sec, doux, etc.)
le temps est + weather specific adjective (nuageux, pluvieux, brumeux, etc.)
il y a + partitive article + noun (brouillard, vent, soleil, nuages, averses, etc.)
il + verb (pleurer, neiger, geler, etc)
examples
Il fait meilleur. - The weather's better.
Il fait beau - It’s nice weather
Il fait chaud - it’s hot.
Il pleut - it’s raining.
il va neiger demain - It will snow tomorrow.
Il y a de l’humidité - it’s humid
Il y a de la grêle - there’s hail.
Il y a des éclairs - it’s lightning
Le temps est nuageux - it’s cloudy.
le temps est brumeux - it is misty
- 701
Du soleil et du vent are nouns. Use "íl y a" with nouns. Please see Nicholas Ahsley's very well explained commment above.
the last time I translated this as, "It is sunny and windy," I was marked WRONG and told to write, "The weather is sunny and windy." Please be consistent, or give guidelines as to why not. It is difficult enough to learn these words and phrasings without having to cope with inconsistencies at this stage of learning.
- 1718
Just put it in natural English rather than translating "il y a" directly. English speakers do not say "there is sun", but "it's sunny".
- 659
To explore, I tried 'It is sunny and breezy.' which was marked wrong. What are the gradations of wind conditions in French?
For this one it says 'windy' is 'vent', but for the previous question where I gave 'vent', DL said "windy" was "venteux" (or venteuse).
So, how am I to know which they want?
It depends on what you're describing as windy. "Vent" is male singular, "Vente" is female singular, "Venteux" is male plural, and "venteuse" is female plural. Usually when talking about the weather it's male singular, because the weather is "il".
- 701
Vent is wind - a noun. Venteux is windy - an adjective. Use "'Il y a with nouns - Il y a du vent. With a weather specific adjective - windy use ''le temp est'' - Le temp est venteux
Sorry, but "il y a du soleil" translates literally as "there is sun" and "il y a du vent" could be "there is wind" but would more normally be put "it is windy". So why mark my answer wrong?
- 20
I went for breezy, too, simply because sunny days are often breezy. Windy days are perhaps more likely to be cloudy,- wind moves clouds around! Post op shuffle to across room dictionary found une brise (a breeze) and venteux (breezy), and aéré. The last one back translates as airy, unsurprisingly!
