In a previous lesson, we discussed rain-related vocabulary and how rain affects our day-to-day lives. This time, we will continue exploring the theme of bad weather and discuss extreme weather due to climate change.
There is a consensus among scientists that le réchauffement climatique (global warming) is becoming an alarming problem that has a complex effect on the planet:
On a vraiment de multiples facettes du réchauffement climatique.
We really have multiple facets of global warming.
Caption 90, Le Monde Incendies : peut-on empêcher les feux de forêt ? - Part 2
Play Caption
Such climate change encompasses not only rising average temperatures, but also a general disruption of weather patterns, un dérèglement climatique (climate disturbance), which is becoming more prevalent in some parts of France:
On vient rajouter là-dessus ce dérèglement climatique.
On top of this we add this climate disturbance.
Caption 87, Le Monde Incendies : peut-on empêcher les feux de forêt ? - Part 2
Play Caption
This climate disruption manifests itself in more frequent extreme weather like tornades (tornadoes) and ouragans (hurricanes):
Multiplication des tornades et ouragans !
Multiplication of tornadoes and hurricanes!
Caption 23, Il était une fois: Notre Terre 25. Technologies - Part 5
Play Caption
Along with tornades et ouragans often come pluies torrentielles (torrential rains):
La Seine sort de son lit à la suite de pluies torrentielles.
The River Seine burst its banks following torrential rains.
Recently France has been faced with des crues records (record floods). The term crue usually refers to an overflowing river or any body of water. In the following video, Lionel discusses the flooding of the Parisian region:
Cet indicateur, lors des crues records de dix-neuf cent dix
This indicator, during the record floods of nineteen hundred ten
Caption 7, Lionel L La Seine sort de son lit
Play Caption
You may also come across a more generic term for “flood,” une inondation, which describes any type of flooding (for example a flooding house):
...une jeune loutre abandonnée par sa mère après des inondations.
...a young otter abandoned by its mother after flooding.
Caption 4, Le Monde Sauver les animaux sauvages ? C'est la mission de cette clinique - Part 2
Play Caption
The verbal form of the noun inondation is inonder (to flood or inundate). As mentioned earlier, the Seine River burst its banks, which became inondées (flooded):
Les voies sur berges que vous pouvez voir derrière moi sont inondées.
The roads on the riverbanks that you can see behind me are flooded.
Caption 15, Lionel L La Seine sort de son lit
Play Caption
Such floods may pose a danger to the population, which is then mise sous alerte (placed under alert):
Une ville de plus de quarante-cinq mille habitants a été mise sous alerte.
A town of more than forty-five thousand inhabitants has been placed under alert.
Caption 20, Lionel L La Seine sort de son lit
Play Caption
People in southern regions of France were also on high alert, as they had to contend with other extreme weather conditions: des orages de grêle (hailstorms), des feux de forêt (forest fires), and des feux de champs (field fires):
L'année dernière, on a eu en plein été à traiter des orages de grêle, et quelques semaines après des feux de forêt, des feux de champs.
Last year, in the middle of summer, we had to deal with hailstorms, and a few weeks later forest fires, field fires.
Captions 88-89, Le Monde Incendies : peut-on empêcher les feux de forêt ? - Part 2
Play Caption
While some parts of the planet have too much rain, others are experiencing a distinct lack of rainfall, which results in la désertification:
Désertification de régions entières !
Desertification of entire regions!
Caption 25, Il était une fois: Notre Terre 25. Technologies - Part 5
Play Caption
When the vegetation dries up, we have what we call la sécheresse de la végétation (vegetation dryness):
Elle intègre la pluie, l'humidité de l'air, la température, le vent et la sécheresse de la végétation.
It integrates rain, air humidity, temperature, wind, and vegetation dryness.
Captions 29-30, Le Monde Incendies : peut-on empêcher les feux de forêt ? - Part 2
Play Caption
The same word sécheresse can also mean “drought”:
La sécheresse est un problème mondial.
Droughts are a global problem.
Unfortunately, la sécheresse (drought) often leads to feux de forêt (forest fires) or incendies (fires). While both un feu and un incendie are somewhat interchangeable, feu is the more generic term, referring to any type of fire. When talking about a major fire, any fire that needs extinguishing, you might prefer to use the term incendie. In this video, we learn that les risques d’incendies (fire risks) are becoming more frequent in France:
Entre mille neuf cent soixante-seize et deux mille cinq, seule une petite partie de l'Hexagone connaissait un risque incendie élevé plus de quatre jours par an.
Between nineteen seventy-six and two thousand five, only a small part of the Hexagon [France] experienced a high fire risk for more than four days a year.
Captions 10-12, Le Monde Incendies : peut-on empêcher les feux de forêt ? - Part 1
Play Caption
Let’s recap some of the vocabulary from this lesson:
le réchauffement climatique: global warming
le dérèglement climatique: climate disturbance
une tornade: a tornado
un ouragan: a hurricane
une pluie torrentielle: torrential rain
une crue: a flood, flooding
une inondation: a flood, flooding
inonder: to flood
mettre sous alerte: to place under alert
un orage de grêle: a hailstorm
un feu de forêt: a forest fire
la désertification: desertification
la sécheresse: drought, dryness
un incendie: a (major) fire
Wishing you a safe summer with very clement weather. Thank you for reading!
France has had its fair share of rain lately. After an exceptionally wet winter and spring combined with an unseasonably cool start to summer, French people cannot wait for the sun to return. In a recent Yabla video, Sophie and Alexandre join the chorus of complaints about the rainy weather, which has been causing them all kinds of problems! Let’s listen to what they have to say and explore some rain-related vocabulary in the process.
This isn't the first time Sophie has complained about the rain. In one of her earlier videos with Patrice, Sophie finds la pluie (the rain) a bit bloquante (off-putting), as she has to go to the market in the rain:
C'est un peu bloquant pour faire le marché là sous la pluie.
It's a bit off-putting to go to the market here in the rain.
Captions 2-3, Sophie et Patrice La pluie
Play Caption
On the other hand, Patrice does not mind when il pleut (it rains):
Oh, il pleut à peine.
Oh, it's barely raining.
Caption 4, Sophie et Patrice La pluie
Play Caption
Note that phrases describing the weather often start with the impersonal pronoun il (it). For more on that, see our lesson Don't Take It Personally.
Patrice even enjoys le mauvais temps (bad weather):
J'ai toujours aimé le mauvais temps, moi
I've always liked bad weather
Caption 66, Sophie et Patrice La pluie
Play Caption
In her new video with Alexandre, Sophie still feels the same way about la pluie. She hates le temps pourri (the rotten weather):
Waouh, t'as vu le temps pourri ?
Wow, have you seen the rotten weather?
Caption 1, Sophie et Alexandre Et la pluie ?
Play Caption
She has good reason to complain, as it has been going on for weeks!
Ça fait des semaines que ça dure...
It's been going on for weeks...
Caption 3, Sophie et Alexandre Et la pluie ?
Play Caption
Worse still, every time Sophie goes outside, she ends up with des chaussures trempées (soaking-wet shoes):
Non, mais mes chaussures, elles sont tout le temps trempées.
No, but my shoes are soaking wet all the time.
Caption 16, Sophie et Alexandre Et la pluie ?
Play Caption
Fortunately, Alexandre, who has a practical mind, offers a simple solution: des bottes (boots).
Tu sors avec tes bottes.
You go out with your boots on.
Caption 27, Sophie et Alexandre Et la pluie ?
Play Caption
To complete the look, Alexandre might have suggested she wear un ciré (a rain slicker), like the one the fisherman wears in this video:
...le papi, en fait, qui est assis sur sa petite chaise pliante avec son ciré, ses bottes et sa bouteille de rouge
...the grandpa, in fact, who is sitting on his little folding chair with his slicker, his boots, and his bottle of red [wine]
Captions 18-20, TV Tours Un moment de pêche sur le Cher
Play Caption
Instead of the ungainly plastic ciré, Sophie might prefer the more fashionable look of un imperméable avec une capuche (a hooded raincoat), which is made of waterproof fabric:
Elle préfèrerait sans doute porter un imperméable avec une capuche.
She probably would prefer a hooded raincoat.
In any event, une capuche (a hood) would have solved Sophie’s problem with her hair, which frisent (gets frizzy) with l’humidité (the humidity):
Et l'humidité, c'est terrible pour mes cheveux.
And the humidity is terrible for my hair.
Caption 91, Sophie et Alexandre Et la pluie ?
Play Caption
Je frise.
I get frizzy.
Caption 37, Sophie et Alexandre Et la pluie ?
Play Caption
Anyway, instead of une capuche, Alexandre suggests wearing un bonnet (a hat), which Sophie flatly turns down, as it would make her hair plats (flat):
Tu mets un bonnet. -Ah non ! Non non. Non, c'est pas possible parce qu'après j'ai les cheveux plats.
You put on a hat. -Oh no ! No no. No, it's not possible because afterwards I have flat hair.
Captions 46-48, Sophie et Alexandre Et la pluie ?
Play Caption
Sophie has a better solution: un parapluie (an umbrella).
Le parapluie, ça marche aussi.
The umbrella works too.
Caption 79, Sophie et Alexandre Et la pluie ?
Play Caption
Still, this is a lost cause, as she is bound to forget her parapluie and end up with les cheveux mouillés (wet hair) anyway!
Ben, tu te retrouves avec les cheveux mouillés.
Well, you end up with wet hair.
Caption 86, Sophie et Alexandre Et la pluie ?
Play Caption
Sophie may have wished she had checked la météo (the weather forecast) before venturing out, but that might have also been pointless because, as Alexandre points out, it is not very reliable:
Ben pourtant, à la météo ils le disent pas.
Well, and yet, in the weather forecast they don't say that.
Caption 6, Sophie et Alexandre Et la pluie ?
Play Caption
The forecasters tend to be overly optimistic, only showing des petits nuages (little clouds):
Il fait juste des petits nuages.
It's just little clouds.
Caption 7, Sophie et Alexandre Et la pluie ?
Play Caption
La météo might even fail to mention averses (showers):
À Paris et en France, le temps a été exécrable, euh... il y a eu des averses et des pluies
In Paris and in France, the weather has been execrable, uh... there have been showers and rain
Captions 24-25, Lionel L La Seine sort de son lit
Play Caption
Whether you enjoy rainy weather or not, it pays to be prepared. So, here is a summary of the vocabulary from this lesson that might come in handy:
la météo: the weather forecast
un nuage: a cloud
la pluie: the rain
une averse: a shower
un temps pourri: rotten weather
le mauvais temps: bad weather
un imperméable: a waterproof raincoat
un ciré: a slicker
des bottes: boots
un bonnet: a hat
une capuche: a hood
un parapluie: an umbrella
être mouillé: to be wet
être trempé: to be soaking wet
il pleut: it rains/it’s raining
il fait des nuages: it’s cloudy
Armed with this new vocabulary, you'll be able to parler de la pluie et du beau temps (to make small talk; literally, "to talk about the rain and nice weather"). We wish you a sunny and happy summer. Thank you for reading!
Spanish
German
Italian
Chinese
English
English 
Deutsch
Español
Français
Italiano
