'En hiver' vs 'L'hiver'.

Helen O.A2Kwiziq community member

'En hiver' vs 'L'hiver'.

This explanation doesn't explain why sometimes one says 'L'hiver' and at other times, 'En hiver', and similar for other seasons.  The examples given do not enlighten me much.  I have always had trouble with this.  At first I thought, oh, you use 'l'hiver' when you are going to say something describing a feature of 'hiver', and 'En hiver' when you want to say something happened during 'hiver', but then the other examples given in context of other seasons etc mostly described activities occurring during the season regardless of the 'en' or 'l'' beginning.

I need it stated explicitly what the rule is, there doesn't appear to be one.

Asked 1 month ago
Maarten K.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor Correct answer

Helen, 

the rule is simply as stated in the lesson, you can use either. Your choice. 

You might see discussion that suggests otherwise, but that is personal preference, not grammatical rules. 

The Academy seems to have a preference for using l’hiver/l’automne/l’été in their definitions but do not seem to rule against ‘ en ‘ either.

 https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/hiver/40108

 

 https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/au-le-printemps-en-%C3%A0-pendant-l%C3%A9t%C3%A9-automne-hiver-pr%C3%A9position-saison.271601/

 

 https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/article/A9A3274

 

'En hiver' vs 'L'hiver'.

This explanation doesn't explain why sometimes one says 'L'hiver' and at other times, 'En hiver', and similar for other seasons.  The examples given do not enlighten me much.  I have always had trouble with this.  At first I thought, oh, you use 'l'hiver' when you are going to say something describing a feature of 'hiver', and 'En hiver' when you want to say something happened during 'hiver', but then the other examples given in context of other seasons etc mostly described activities occurring during the season regardless of the 'en' or 'l'' beginning.

I need it stated explicitly what the rule is, there doesn't appear to be one.

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