En mai et en juin, au fur et à mesure que les soirées deviennent plus longues, nous dînons plus souvent dehors.

In French, en is the usual preposition for months, seasons, and years:

• en mai = in May
• en juin = in June
• en été = in summer
• en 2026 = in 2026

So en mai et en juin simply means in May and in June. French often repeats en before each month, though in some contexts people may shorten repeated structures in casual speech.

Au fur et à mesure que means as, gradually as, or in step with the way something changes over time.

In this sentence:

• au fur et à mesure que les soirées deviennent plus longues
  = as the evenings become longer

It suggests a gradual process, not just a single moment. A good way to feel the nuance is:

• Quand = when
• Comme = as / since
• Au fur et à mesure que = as things progressively happen

So this expression is especially useful when one change happens little by little and another thing changes along with it.

The full expression is au fur et à mesure que when it introduces a clause with a verb.

Here, the clause is:

• les soirées deviennent plus longues

So:

• au fur et à mesure que + clause
• as + subject + verb

You can think of que here as the link that introduces the dependent clause, similar to how English uses as followed by a full clause.

Les soirées refers to evenings as periods of the day, especially the later part of the day associated with dinner, going out, relaxing, and daylight lasting longer.

• le soir / les soirs = evening / evenings, often more general
• la soirée / les soirées = the evening period, often with a sense of the time spent during the evening

In this sentence, les soirées deviennent plus longues sounds natural because we are talking about the evening period stretching later as daylight lasts longer.

Deviennent is the 3rd person plural present tense of devenir = to become.

The subject is les soirées, which is plural, so the verb must also be plural:

• la soirée devient = the evening becomes
• les soirées deviennent = the evenings become

So:

• les soirées deviennent plus longues
  = the evenings become longer

Because longues is an adjective describing les soirées, which is:

• feminine plural

So the adjective must agree:

• long = masculine singular
• longue = feminine singular
• longs = masculine plural
• longues = feminine plural

Since soirée is feminine, les soirées takes plus longues.

The circumflex accent in dînons comes from the traditional spelling of the verb dîner.

• nous dînons = we have dinner / we dine

The accent helps preserve the pronunciation and distinguish the word visually from similar forms. In modern French, you may sometimes see spelling reforms that reduce some circumflex accents, but dîner and forms like dînons are still very commonly written this way.

Nous dînons means we have dinner or we dine.

In everyday English, we have dinner is usually the most natural translation. So the whole phrase:

• nous dînons plus souvent dehors

means:

• we have dinner outside more often

Even though dîner can look formal if translated as to dine, in French it is a normal everyday verb.

In French, adverbs of frequency like souvent often come after the conjugated verb:

• nous dînons souvent dehors = we often have dinner outside

With plus souvent = more often, the same pattern applies:

• nous dînons plus souvent dehors

This is very natural French word order. English often puts often before the main verb, but French commonly places it after the verb.

Here, dehors means outside.

So:

• dîner dehors = to have dinner outside

Yes, it is close in meaning to à l’extérieur, but dehors is more common and natural in everyday speech for this kind of sentence.

Compare:

• Nous mangeons dehors. = We eat outside.
• Nous mangeons à l’extérieur. = We eat outdoors / outside.

Both are correct, but dehors sounds simpler and more conversational.

French often uses the present tense to describe:

• habits
• general truths
• repeated seasonal actions

So this sentence means something like:

• In May and June, as the evenings get longer, we eat dinner outside more often.

It is not necessarily happening at this exact second. It is a general pattern or habit.

No, not in this sentence.

French plus can mean:

1. more
2. no longer, but only in a negative structure

Here we have:

• plus longues = longer
• plus souvent = more often

There is no negation such as ne ... plus, so plus clearly means more.

Examples:

• plus longues = longer
• plus souvent = more often
• je ne dîne plus dehors = I no longer have dinner outside

Yes. The sentence starts with a time expression, then gives a progressive circumstance, and finally the main action:

• En mai et en juin = time frame
• au fur et à mesure que les soirées deviennent plus longues = background change
• nous dînons plus souvent dehors = main result/action

This order is very natural in French. It sets the scene first and then tells you what happens. English often does the same:

• In May and June, as the evenings become longer, we eat dinner outside more often.

Usually no. Soirées means evenings, not nights.

• soirée = evening
• nuit = night

So les soirées deviennent plus longues means the evenings become longer, which fits the idea of longer daylight in late spring and early summer. Saying nights become longer would suggest the opposite season or a different idea.