Breakdown of La dernière canicule a été si forte que même la nuit, l’air restait très chaud.
Questions & Answers about La dernière canicule a été si forte que même la nuit, l’air restait très chaud.
In French, every noun has a grammatical gender. Canicule (heatwave) is feminine, so you must use the feminine forms:
- la (feminine singular article)
- dernière (feminine form of dernier)
If the noun were masculine, you’d say le dernier + noun, but with canicule you must say la dernière canicule.
Dernier / dernière in French can mean either:
- Most recent: the latest / the previous one
- Final: the last one ever
In this sentence, contextually it means “the most recent heatwave” (the previous one we experienced).
If you wanted to insist on “the final one ever,” you’d usually add context or emphasis, for example:
- la toute dernière canicule de notre vie – the very last heatwave of our lives
Without context, la dernière canicule is normally understood as “the last / previous heatwave.”
Both a été and était come from être (to be), but they are different tenses:
- a été = passé composé (completed event, seen as a whole)
- était = imparfait (ongoing, repeated, descriptive in the past)
Here, a été si forte describes the heatwave as a single, completed event in the past. You’re looking at that heatwave as one whole episode:
La dernière canicule a été si forte… – That last heatwave was so strong…
If you said:
- La canicule était forte.
you’d be focusing more on the ongoing description of the heatwave rather than on it as a completed episode.
In this sentence, a été fits better because it leads to a consequence (que même la nuit, l’air restait très chaud).
In compound tenses like the passé composé, most verbs use avoir as the auxiliary. Être itself also uses avoir as its auxiliary:
- avoir
- été → a été
You never say “est été” for the passé composé of être.
Correct forms:
- il a été, elle a été, la canicule a été, ça a été, etc.
All three express intensity, but with differences:
- très forte = very strong (just a high degree, no result necessarily)
- si forte que… = so strong that… (introduces a result/consequence)
- tellement forte que… = so/so much strong that… (also introduces a consequence, more emphatic or colloquial)
In your sentence:
- a été si forte que même la nuit, l’air restait très chaud.
= It was so strong that even at night, the air stayed very warm.
The structure si + adjective + que is a standard pattern to express “so … that …”.
You could replace it with tellement forte que without changing the meaning much:
- La dernière canicule a été tellement forte que…
sounds a bit more emphatic/informal, but is correct.
Adjectives in French agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.
- Noun: la canicule → feminine singular
- Adjective: fort (strong)
Feminine singular form of fort is forte:
- Masculine singular: fort
- Feminine singular: forte
- Masculine plural: forts
- Feminine plural: fortes
So we must say une canicule forte, la dernière canicule a été si forte.
Here, même means “even” (as in “even at night”).
- même la nuit = even at night
Position: même usually comes just before the word it modifies:
- même la nuit – even at night
- même les enfants étaient fatigués – even the children were tired
- même toi, tu l’as remarqué – even you noticed it
Don’t confuse this with le même / la même (the same):
- la même canicule – the same heatwave
- au même moment – at the same moment
In your sentence it is clearly “even,” emphasizing that not even nighttime brought relief.
All can be correct, but with slightly different nuances:
- la nuit = at night / in the nighttime (general time expression)
- même la nuit, l’air restait très chaud. – even at night…
- pendant la nuit = during the night (emphasizing the whole duration of the night)
- Pendant la nuit, l’air restait très chaud.
- dans la nuit can mean:
- in the night (within that period)
- or more specifically at some point during the night, and sometimes it suggests darkness.
In this sentence, même la nuit sounds natural and broad: even at night (in general), there was still no cool air.
French normally needs an article (or a determiner) before nouns, even for abstract or general things:
- l’air – the air
- l’eau – water / the water
- le temps – time, weather
Here, l’ is simply le (masculine singular “the”) shortened before a vowel:
- le air → l’air
In English we can often drop “the” and say “air stayed hot,” but in French you can’t just say “air restait très chaud”; you need l’air.
Restait is the imparfait of rester (to remain, to stay):
- l’air restait très chaud – the air stayed / remained very warm (describing an ongoing state)
The imparfait is used here to describe a continuous situation in the past: throughout the night, the air kept being hot.
If you used est resté (passé composé):
- l’air est resté très chaud – the air ended up staying hot (more like a completed result, often more punctual)
But the sentence is emphasizing a lasting condition over time, especially during the night, so restait (imparfait) is more natural.
Both mean “very / too” in English in different contexts, but in French:
- très chaud = very hot / very warm (high degree, neutral)
- trop chaud = too hot (excessive, more than desirable or acceptable)
In your sentence, très chaud simply describes a high temperature:
- l’air restait très chaud – the air remained very warm / very hot
You could say trop chaud to insist more clearly that it was uncomfortably or dangerously hot:
- l’air restait trop chaud pour dormir. – the air was too hot to sleep.
But très chaud already conveys that it was significantly hot, and the context (a strong heatwave) implies discomfort.
Air is masculine in French:
- l’air = le air (masculine, with elision)
So adjectives referring to l’air are masculine:
- l’air chaud (not chaude)
- un air frais (fresh air)
In the sentence l’air restait très chaud, chaud is masculine singular, agreeing with l’air.
Approximate English-based pronunciation (not IPA):
- canicule → ka-nee-KOOL
- stress usually on the last syllable in French: -cule
- dernière → der-NYER
- -niè- like nyair
- restait → res-TÈ
- -ait here pronounced like -è (eh)
Remember the French r is uvular (back in the throat) and not like the English “r.”
Yes, it’s grammatically correct and understandable, but there is a nuance:
- a été si forte que…
→ more like a single event seen as a whole, with a strong result (the air stayed hot). - était si forte que…
→ emphasizes the ongoing nature or description of the heatwave.
In practice, many native speakers might say either, but a été sounds more natural when you link a past event to a concrete consequence, as in this sentence.
In French, the pattern for “so … that …” is:
- si + adjective + que + result clause
No comma is needed between forte and que:
- a été si forte que même la nuit, l’air restait très chaud.
A comma would break the tight link between cause and consequence and look incorrect in normal written French.