Summer or l'été in French language is one the favorite seasons of French people. It's the ideal time to forget about work, to travel, go on vacation, go to the beach or sea and enjoy holidays with family.
These recent years, summer has been impacted by the the COVID -19 pandemic situation, but there are still ways to enjoy your vacations.
Today we will see some keywords and expressions about summer (l'été) such as clothing names and activities you can do during summer and verbs to use in French.
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Essential Words for talking about summer (l'été)
Let's start with the must-know French word: l'été which means summer. The word été can also be used in compound tenses like passé composé, as the past participle of the verb être (to be). So, do not make the confusion!
For example :
L'été dernier, je suis allée au Canada. => Last summer, I went to Canada.
Hier, j'ai été malade .=> yesterday I have been sick.
When talking about summer, we think automatically of the words sun, beach and months like June, July, August. Here is how the essential words related to l'été are called in French.
le Soleil : sun
la chaleur : heat
la canicule : heat wave
la plage : the beach
la Mer : the sea
la Montagne : the mountain
les vacances d'été : summer holidays
juin : June
juillet : July
août : August
You will certainly need to know these verbs to be able to make a small talk about vacations and holidays.
Voyager : to travel
Partir en vacances : to go on vacation
Aller quelque part: to go somewhere
Visiter : to visit (talking about visiting places)
Nager : to swim
Se baigner : to swim
prendre son congé annuel : to take one's annual leave
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12 Favorite Summer activities in French
In general to talk about activities that we do, we use the essential French verb faire. During vacations, people's favorite activities can be :
faire du surf or surfer : to surf
faire de la plongée : to dive
faire de la natation : to swim
faire de la randonnée : to hike
faire du ski nautique : water skiing
aller dans les montagnes : to go in the mountains
aller à la plage : to go to the beach
la pêche : fishing (do not mix it up with the peach (fruit) which is written exactly the same way)
faire un pique-nique : to picnic
faire un barbecue : to have a barbeque
bronzer : to tan
se bronzer : to sunbathe