Le virage près de l’école est dangereux quand il pleut.

In French, nouns usually need an article much more often than in English. So le virage is the normal way to say the bend/curve.

• le = masculine singular the
• virage = bend, curve, turn

French generally does not like leaving countable nouns bare the way English sometimes does.

Here, virage means a bend, curve, or turn in a road. In everyday road-related French, it often refers to a part of the road that curves.

It is a masculine noun:

• un virage
• le virage

So that is why later the adjective is masculine too: dangereux.

Because près de is a fixed expression meaning near or close to.

You should learn it as one unit:

• près de = near

So:

• près de l’école = near the school

You cannot normally say près l’école. The de is required.

Because école begins with a vowel sound, and French usually avoids la école. Instead, la contracts by elision to l’.

So:

• la école → l’école
• près de l’école = near the school

This kind of shortening is very common in French:

• l’école
• l’homme
• l’amie

Because virage is a masculine singular noun.

The adjective must agree with the noun it describes:

• masculine singular: dangereux
• feminine singular: dangereuse

Since we have le virage, we use dangereux.

Examples:

• Le virage est dangereux.
• La route est dangereuse.

French uses an impersonal subject with weather verbs. So il here does not mean a real person or thing. It is just the grammatical subject required by the verb.

• il pleut = it is raining / it rains
• il neige = it is snowing
• il fait froid = it is cold

This is similar to English it rains, where it also does not refer to anything specific.

It can often be understood as either, depending on context.

In this sentence, quand il pleut means:

• when it rains
• or more generally whenever it rains

Because this is a general statement, English often uses when or whenever naturally.

Because it describes which bend we are talking about: the bend near the school.

French commonly places this kind of location phrase after the noun:

• le virage près de l’école
• literally: the bend near the school

This is very similar to English word order.

It would be grammatically possible, but it sounds less clear.

Le virage près de l’école clearly means the bend near the school.

If you move près de l’école later, it may briefly sound like dangerous near the school, which is less precise. So the original version is better because it attaches près de l’école directly to virage.

Dangereux is pronounced roughly like dahn-zhuh-ruh, with the final x silent.

A few useful points:

• The g in dangereux sounds like the s in measure
• The final x is not pronounced
• French spelling often keeps letters that are not fully pronounced

So although it looks long, the spoken form is simpler than the spelling suggests.

Yes. French speakers often make a smooth link between the words, so l’école est flows together naturally.

Also note:

• l’ is the shortened form of the article before a vowel
• est is pronounced like eh

So the phrase is said smoothly, without a pause between l’école and est.

Because est already means is. It is the third person singular form of être, which means to be.

So:

• est = is

In this sentence:

• Le virage ... est dangereux = The bend ... is dangerous

This is a very common structure:

• Il est grand. = He is tall.
• La maison est vieille. = The house is old.