Do you remember how Louis from Les Parent asked his wife Natalie what time it was in entry #153? Instead of asking her quelle heure est-il?, he asked: Il est quelle heure?
Louis said something else in that scene that might help to make your French sound a little more natural. Do you know how to ask what the weather is like in French? Quel temps fait-il?, right? Let’s look at another way, though.
French textbooks seem to love questions like quelle heure est-il? and quel temps fait-il?, but real people like them less when speaking normally in conversations. Those are mostly written forms, not spoken ones.
Back to Louis from Les Parent. It’s 9 o’clock in the morning, Louis is still in bed, his wife walks in and tries to wake him up. Mumbling, Louis first asks his wife what time it is. Then he asks her how the weather is by saying: Quel temps il fait?
Quel temps il fait? is a more natural way of asking what the weather is like than quel temps fait-il?, at least in regular language situations.
You might even hear it pronounced as:
Quel temps y fait?
You can review the informal question il est quelle heure? in entry #153.
[This entry was inspired by the character Louis in Les Parent, “Black Zak,” season 3, episode 17, Radio-Canada, Montreal, 21 February 2011.]
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