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Fuori fa freddo.

Fuori fa freddo.
It is cold outside.
From Lesson 77:Prepositions of place (vicino a, davanti a)·Italian

Breakdown of Fuori fa freddo.

fuori
outside
fare freddo
to be cold (weather)

Questions & Answers about Fuori fa freddo.

Why does this sentence use fa instead of è to mean "is"?
In Italian, we use the verb fare (to make or do) to describe most weather conditions. Instead of saying "it is cold," Italians literally say "it makes cold" (fa freddo). You will also see this in phrases like fa caldo (it is hot) or fa bel tempo (the weather is nice).
Why doesn't fuori have a preposition after it, like the other location phrases in this lesson?
In this lesson, you are learning phrases that need a preposition when they connect to a noun (like vicino a for "close to"). Because fuori is used all by itself here, it doesn't need a connecting preposition. If you wanted to specify what it is outside of, you would use fuori da, as in fuori dalla casa (outside the house).
Where is the word for "it" in Fuori fa freddo?
Italian doesn't use a translation for the "dummy" subject "it" when talking about the weather. You just use the third-person singular form of the verb (fa) all on its own.
Can I change the word order and say Fa freddo fuori?
Yes! You can absolutely say Fa freddo fuori and it means the exact same thing. Putting Fuori at the beginning of the sentence just adds a little bit of emphasis to the location, similar to saying "Outside, it's cold" in English.

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