Je porte la veste quand il fait froid.

I wear the jacket when it is cold.

Breakdown of Je porte la veste quand il fait froid.

• je: I
• quand: when
• porter: to wear
• froid: cold
• la veste: the jacket

Questions & Answers about Je porte la veste quand il fait froid.

Why is porte used instead of mets la veste?

In French you have two distinct verbs for “wear”:

• porter = to wear (describes the state of having clothes on)
• mettre = to put on (describes the action of dressing)
  Here, the sentence talks about wearing the jacket whenever it’s cold (a state or habit), so porter is more appropriate than mettre, which would emphasize the moment you put the jacket on rather than the fact that you are wearing it.

Why la veste instead of une veste?

The choice of article changes the meaning:

• la veste (definite article) refers to a specific jacket that is known to speaker and listener or habitual (“the jacket I always wear”).
• une veste (indefinite article) means any jacket in general.
  So “Je porte la veste quand il fait froid” implies a particular jacket you own or have in mind. If you said “Je mets une veste quand il fait froid,” you’d be talking about putting on some (unspecified) jacket when it’s cold.

Why can’t we say Je porte veste without any article?

In French, every singular countable noun normally requires a determiner—definite (le, la), indefinite (un, une) or partitive (du, de la). Dropping the article is ungrammatical. Unlike in English where you might hear colloquial reductions, French needs that article:
• Je porte la veste.
• Je porte une veste.

What does quand mean, and can I use lorsque instead?

• quand = “when,” introduces a time clause in everyday speech.
• lorsque also means “when,” but is slightly more formal or literary.
  You can safely replace quand with lorsque in this sentence:
  “Je porte la veste lorsqu’il fait froid.”
  Just remember to contract lorsque il to lorsqu’il.

Can I start with the time clause and write Quand il fait froid, je porte la veste?

Yes. Both orders are correct:
• Main clause first: “Je porte la veste quand il fait froid.”
• Subordinate (time) clause first: “Quand il fait froid, je porte la veste.”
When starting with the quand clause, you should follow it with a comma. When it comes after the main clause, the comma is optional and less common in short sentences.

Why is il fait froid used instead of il est froid?

Weather expressions in French use an impersonal faire construction:
• il fait froid = “it’s cold” (literally “it makes cold”)
Using être (“il est froid”) would mean “he/it is cold to the touch” (e.g. a person or object feels cold), not “the weather is cold.”

What does the il in il fait froid refer to?

It’s a dummy or impersonal subject pronoun. It doesn’t point to any specific person, object or concept; it simply fulfills the grammatical need for a subject in weather expressions, much like the “it” in English “it’s raining.”

Why is there no article before froid in il fait froid?

In the impersonal faire + adjective construction, froid acts as an adjective complement describing the weather, so no article is used. If you add an article, you turn froid into a noun phrase with a slightly different nuance (e.g. “il fait un froid glacial” = “it’s a freezing cold”), but the basic expression “il fait froid” remains article-free.