Seasons

Il y a quatre saisons. - There are four seasons.

• le printemps - the spring
• l’été - the summer
• l’automne - the autumn
• l’hiver - the winter

Can you see that three of the seasons have the article l’ rather than le or la? That’s because they start with a vowel (h is silent in French so the first sound is a vowel). They are all masculine nouns.

To say ‘in summer, winter, autumn’, you take off the article (le/la/l’) and add en.

• en été - in summer
• en automne - in autumn
• en hiver - in winter

BUT you say AU printemps.

• au printemps - in spring