Language/French/Grammar/Comparing-neutral-ce,-cela,-ça-with-personal-il-ils-and-elle-elles

Comparing neutral ce, cela, ça with personal il/ils and elle/elles

il/ils and elle/elles refer to people and things (both concrete and abstract), ce, cela, ça refer to events, actions, states or general classes of phenomena.

Compare:

• C'est bon, le vin

Wine is good

(refers to wine in general)

• Il est bon, le vin

The wine is good

(refers to a specific example of wine)

• C'est lourd, cette valise

This suitcase is heavy

(implies that it is heavy to carry)

• Elle est lourde, cette valise

This suitcase is heavy

(refers to the object itself)

• J'adore m'occuper des enfants. C'est si câlin à cet âge-là

I love looking after children. They're so cuddly when they're that age (ce referring to small children in general)

• J'adore m'occuper de tes enfants. Ils sont si câlins

I love looking after your children. They're so cuddly (referring to specific small children)

In informal spoken French many speakers use ça where il/ils, elle/elles are used in more formal spoken and written French:

• J'ai astiqué mes casseroles. Regardez comme ça brille!

I gave my pans a scrub. Look how shiny they are!

• Les pintades, ça couche souvent dehors

Guinea-fowl often sleep outside

• Tu sais, ces gens-là, ça boit

You know, those people, they like their drink

NB: Because this usage is regarded as a feature of informal spoken French, the foreign learner should avoid using it in the written language.

Don't miss the chance to check out these pages as you wrap up this lesson: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Order of unstressed object pronouns when more than one is present & Singular or plural when a number of individuals have one item each.

Other Lessons

• Differences in the use of numbers in French and English mille milliers milliards
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• “être” and “avoir” with verbs used intransitively and transitively
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives — A change from a nasal vowel to an oral vowel
• Use of ce, cela, ça as neutral pronouns
• Easy future
• Subject verb agreement — Verb agreement with collective noun subjects
• Pronominal verbs used as passives
• French Ditransitive verbs
• Compound adjectives involving demi—, nu— and mi—
• Grammatical and real number
• Use of on
• Adverbs
• Marked use of tu
• Adverbs ending in —amment and —eminent derived from adjectives ending in —ant or —ent