Breakdown of La météo a annoncé que le week-end serait ensoleillé, mais la pluie a gâché le pique-nique.
être
to be
mais
but
avoir
to have
le week-end
the weekend
annoncer
to announce
la météo
the weather forecast / the weather
que
that (introducing a clause)
la pluie
the rain
gâcher
to ruin
ensoleillé
sunny
Questions & Answers about La météo a annoncé que le week-end serait ensoleillé, mais la pluie a gâché le pique-nique.
Why is serait used here instead of the future tense?
This is the sequence of tenses in reported speech. The original quote was probably in the future tense: Le week-end sera ensoleillé (The weekend will be sunny). But because the reporting verb is in the past (a annoncé), the future tense sera must backshift into the conditional tense serait (would be).
I thought la météo meant "the weather." Why does it translate to "the weather forecast" here?
Why does the sentence use serait ensoleillé instead of a weather expression with faire?
When talking generally about the weather, French usually uses the verb faire (like il fait beau) or y avoir (like il y a du soleil). However, ensoleillé (sunny) is an adjective describing a specific noun (le week-end). When describing a noun directly, we use the verb être, which is why it becomes le week-end serait here.
Why are a annoncé and a gâché in the passé composé rather than the imparfait?
Both of these verbs describe specific, completed events that advance the story. The forecast made a single announcement (a annoncé), and the rain completed the action of ruining the picnic (a gâché). If the sentence were describing an ongoing background condition, such as "it was raining," it would use the imparfait (il pleuvait).
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