#williamylee

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

pure daggerBOT
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Please be patient

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Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

gritty nimbus
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I use “il” to refer to something more specifically, and “ça” to refer to something more vague, ykwim? ||I’m not at a good level of french yet so dont take this as a final answer||

spiral prawn
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That's actually accurate. The pronouns « il/elle » are usually used to refer to a concrete, already-mentioned object while « ça » is used for more abstract, usually wider stuff.

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« J'aime regarder la mer, elle est belle »
The sea is beautiful and I love watching it.
« J'aime regarder la mer, c'est beau »
The sea and me watching it is a beautiful thing.

Basically the first refers to just « la mer » while the second can refer to the whole « j'aime regarder la mer » part.

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That being said, it does get complicated when you factor in impersonal statements which most often take « il ». Examples are the verbs pleuvoir (to rain), and falloir (to be necessary) where you use « il » as it's an impersonal although it's referring to an abstraction

pine kiln
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How about an action? a thing that was mentioned to be needed to be done. Is that a le or ça?

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Sometimes I see people use "je le fais" but sometimes "je fais ça"

spiral prawn
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Either way is fine

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If there's a clear reference, « le/la/les » might be preferred but either way it's fine

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« Le sabotage dont il parlait, il est important de le faire »
where « le » refers to « le sabotage » but you can go « … il est important de faire ça » and it doesn't change much

pine kiln
spiral prawn
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Not as far as I know

pine kiln
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If I want to refer to the whole thing/scenario described by a sentence, and it isn't quite spelled out as in the le sabotage example, should I stick to ça?

spiral prawn