Language/French/Grammar/il-or-ça-alternating-with-clauses-or-infinitives-as-subjects
Some impersonal verbs allow both il (or ça in informal spoken French) and a clause or infinitive as a subject:
- Il convient à ma mère que les Durand habitent à côté or Que les Durand habitent à côté convient à ma mère
It suits my mother to have the Durands living next door
- Ça me fait peur d'y aller la nuit or D'y aller la nuit me fait peur
I am afraid to go there at night
Others:
- Il/ça déplaît à Olivier de/que . . .
It displeases Oliver to/that. . .
- Il/ça fait mal à Arnaud de/que . . .
It hurts Arnaud to/that . . .
- Il/ça fait plaisir à Céline de/que . . .
It gives Céline pleasure to/that . . .
- Il/ça va à Romain de/que . . .
It suits Romain to/that. . .
- Il/ça arrive à Béatrice de/que . . .
It sometimes happens to Béatrice that. . .
Verbs of this type which have direct objects, as opposed to indirect objects introduced by à, always take the impersonal subject cela (or ça in informal spoken French) and NOT il:
- Cela/ça amuse Pierre qu'elle fasse de la planche à voile or Qu'elle fasse de la planche à voile amuse Pierre
It amuses Pierre that she goes wind-surfing
- Cela/ça ennuie Georges de devoir recommencer or De devoir recommencer ennuie Georges
George finds it annoying to have to start again
- Cela/ça attriste Antoine de/que ...
... saddens ...
- Cela/ça effraye Véronique de/que ...
... frightens ...
- Cela/ça énerve Joël de/que ...
... annoys ...
- Cela/ça épuise Fabien de/que ...
... exhausts ...
- Cela/ça étonne Jérôme de/que ...
... astonishes ...
- Cela/ça fatigue Charlotte de/que ...
... tires ...
- Cela/ça gêne Violette de/que ...
... embarrasses ...
- Cela/ça inquiète Maud de/que ...
... worries ...
- Cela/ça intéresse Rachel de/que ...
... interests ...
- Cela/ça irrite Sophie de/que . . .
... irritâtes ...
Don't hesitate to look into these other pages after completing this lesson: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Easy way of generating the imperfect tense & Use of on.
Other Lessons[edit | edit source]
- Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms
- Comparing neutral ce, cela, ça with personal il ils and elle elles
- Adjectives which regularly occur before and after the noun, but with a change of meaning
- Plurals of nouns ending in s, x, z
- Position of direct and indirect object pronouns
- Use of jamais
- Subject Verb Agreement — Agreement quantifiers numeral nouns
- Order of unstressed object pronouns when more than one is present
- “être” and “avoir” with verbs used intransitively and transitively
- The plural of compound nouns
- Conventions for writing cardinal numbers in figures
- Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
- Omission of the article in set phrases and verbal constructions
- Plural
- Nouns that are only masculine or only feminine But may refer to both men and women