{"id":22461,"date":"2015-09-18T00:17:18","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T22:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=22461"},"modified":"2017-10-23T17:08:19","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T15:08:19","slug":"il-est-facile-cest-facile-confusing-pairs-cest-vs-il-est","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/il-est-facile-cest-facile-confusing-pairs-cest-vs-il-est\/","title":{"rendered":"Il est facile? C’est facile? Confusing Pairs: C’est vs. Il Est"},"content":{"rendered":"

French has many confusing pairs for new learners. This mostly stems from the fact that these pairs only have 1 English equivalent that just doesn’t work in French. For example: Quelle est la diff\u00e9rence entre an et ann\u00e9e<\/strong> (What’s the difference between an<\/strong> and ann\u00e9e<\/strong>)? In English, they both mean year, but the two words in French are different because they each have their own way of referring to how time is being considered in the sentence. To know which word to employ, you have to understand what’s being implied in its usage.<\/p>\n

Just like an<\/strong> and ann\u00e9e<\/strong>, c’est<\/strong> and il est<\/strong> (and by extension ce sont<\/strong> and ils sont<\/strong>) are not interchangeable. They can mean a number of things: this is, that is, it is, they are, and s\/he is.<\/p>\n

When I first began learning French, this was a difficult concept for me. Once you see how their usage works, though, you’ll be spitting out your sentences like a native. It might take time, but it will eventually become second nature.<\/p>\n

Let’s take a look at how to use them in 4 different environments.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Adverbs<\/span>
\n<\/strong>Use il est<\/strong> with an unmodified adverb and c’est<\/strong> with a modified adverb.<\/p>\n

Don’t forget that un adverbe<\/strong> modifies an adjective, verb or another adverb and describe when, where, how, and how often. Adverbs are also invariable (quoi??<\/strong> This means they don’t change. Il est en retard \/ Elle est en retard. <\/strong>You don’t tag on -e on retard because the subject is feminine.)<\/p>\n

So what are unmodified and modified adverbs? Even though adverbs are invariable, it doesn’t mean they can’t be modified further. Let’s take a look at an example:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Je veux rentrer. <\/strong>Il est tard.
\n<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I want to go home. It’s late.<\/p>\n

Now let’s look at another sentence:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>C’est d\u00e9ja tr\u00e8s tard, mais je n’arrive pas \u00e0 m’en dormir.
\n<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It’s already very late, but I can’t fall asleep.<\/p>\n

Because we modified the word tard<\/strong> with tr\u00e8s<\/strong>, we need to use c’est<\/strong> instead of il est<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Adjectives<\/span>
\n<\/strong>Use il\/elle est<\/strong> when describing a person and c’est<\/strong> when describing a situation.<\/p>\n

Don’t forget that un adjectif<\/strong> describes a noun (its color, shape, size, state of being, etc.)<\/p>\n

I’ve always found this one very logical. Let’s take a look:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nathalie ? <\/strong>Oui, elle est tr\u00e8s belle.
\n<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nathalie? Yes, she’s very beautiful!<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Je n’aime pas entendre ma voix. C’est bizarre!
\n<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don’t like hearing my own voice. It’s weird!<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Nouns<\/span>
\n<\/strong>Use il est<\/strong> for an unmodified noun and c’est<\/strong> for a modified noun. This is just like the adverb \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Don’t forget that un nom<\/strong> is a person, place, thing, or idea.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Il est professeur.
\n<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He’s a teacher.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 C’est un bon professeur.
\n<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He’s a good teacher.<\/p>\n

Because I’m saying he’s a good teacher, I have to use c’est<\/strong> (also note the usage of the article in the 2nd sentence: if you’re saying what someone’s profession is, you don’t need the article. This changes if you use an adjective to describe the noun.)<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

People & Proper Nouns & Stressed Pronouns<\/span>
\n<\/strong>Use il est<\/strong> to describe a person’s location through a prepositional phrase and use c’est<\/strong> for a stressed pronoun or a modified noun.<\/p>\n

Don’t forget that a prepositional phrase says where someone\/something is in location to another person\/place\/thing. A proper name is one you’ll capitalize – Josh, John<\/a>, and Elizabeth<\/a>, for example ;-). A stressed pronoun is used to emphasize a noun or pronoun referring to a person.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Il est au th\u00e9\u00e2tre ce soir.
\n<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He’s at the movies tonight.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Bonjour, c’est Thierry \u00e0 l’appareil<\/a>…
\n<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hi, this is Thierry speaking [on the phone]).<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 C’est moi !
\n<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It’s\/that’s me!<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

So there you have it! Not so difficult \ud83d\ude42 We encourage you\u00a0to write a few sentences below showing the difference between\u00a0c’est\u00a0<\/strong>and il est<\/b>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

French has many confusing pairs for new learners. This mostly stems from the fact that these pairs only have 1 English equivalent that just doesn’t work in French. For example: Quelle est la diff\u00e9rence entre an et ann\u00e9e (What’s the difference between an and ann\u00e9e)? In English, they both mean year, but the two words…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":22465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[404795,348592,404935],"class_list":["post-22461","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","tag-cest","tag-confusing-pairs","tag-il-est"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28834,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22461\/revisions\/28834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}