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Il pleut et le ciel est gris.

Il pleut et le ciel est gris.
It is raining and the sky is gray.
From Lesson 110:Negative pronouns (ne... rien)·French

Questions & Answers about Il pleut et le ciel est gris.

Does il pleut literally mean "he is raining"?
No, il acts as an impersonal pronoun here, just like "it" does in English weather expressions. You will always use il to talk about the weather in French.
Why does gris have an -s at the end? Is le ciel plural?
Le ciel (the sky) is singular. The adjective gris (gray) naturally ends in an -s in its base masculine singular form. If the noun were feminine, you would add an -e to make it grise.
How would I change the second part to say "nothing is gray" using this lesson's negative pronouns?
You would say rien n'est gris. When rien (nothing) acts as the subject of the sentence, it goes in front of the verb. You still need the negative particle ne (which becomes n' before the vowel in est), but you completely drop the pas.

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