été
/e.te/masculine
The French word for summer is été.
The word été is a masculine noun used to refer to the hottest season. If you want to express the idea of spending the summer on holiday in a particular place, you can use the verb estiver or the phrase passer l'été.
Meaning: hottest season (noun)
Related words
How does it change in a sentence?
To say 'in summer', use the preposition en before été to form en été. Because été is masculine, when you want to say 'this summer', you use the demonstrative adjective cet rather than ce or cette, resulting in the phrase cet été.
How do you pronounce it?
été is pronounced /e.te/ and consists of 2 syllables.
Did you know?
- The Proto-Indo-European root of été refers to 'burning', a poetic way to describe the heat of the season.
- Because of its Latin origin, the word été is a homonym of the past participle of the verb être, meaning 'been'.
- In some French dialects and older poetry, the term estivage refers specifically to the act of moving livestock to high mountain pastures during the été.
Examples in context
- En été, je nage.I swim in the summer.This sentence shows how to use été when talking about activities done during the season.Tatoeba #14802 by Julien_PDC, translation #256458 by CK
- Tu pars cet été ?Are you going away this summer?This sentence demonstrates how to ask about someone's plans for cet été.Tatoeba #640038 by qdii, translation #60186 by CK
- Il est né cet été.He was born this summer.This sentence uses cet été to refer to a specific summer.Tatoeba #9157178 by Julien_PDC, translation #13503119 by rul
- On se retrouve sur la plage cet été?Shall we meet at the beach this summer?
- 587 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Chloé and Lucas are talking about their vacation plans.
- ChloéTu aimes l'été ?Do you like summer?
- LucasOui, j'adore l'été.Yes, I love summer.
- ChloéMoi aussi, c'est ma saison préférée.Me too, it is my favorite season.
- LucasIl fait très chaud en été.It is very hot in summer.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “summer” translations and entries été, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries été, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
