miketuan

[cinder coyote]

Please be patient

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[ionic gazelle]

With il(s) and elle(s), the noun basically acts like a adjective and it's weird to have it qualified with another adjective. That is also why the word "article" isn't mentioned in both cases unlike with c'est.
When you have a noun qualified by an adjective, the only solution here is to use c'est : c'est un homme gentil.

[meager lintel]

Nouns that describe people on the long term (professions, nationalities, religions…) can basically act like adjectives, and don't require an article. It's not a general rule for all nouns.

[karmic lake]

that's what I was thinking

[karmic lake]

Thanks, how about using a pronoun instead? Like "Charles est un homme gentil"?

[meager lintel]

that's not a pronoun, but your sentence works fine.
You can say "Charles est un homme" as well as "Charles est gentil"
You can say "C'est un homme" but not "Il est un homme" because "homme" is a noun (or rather it sounds weird)
You can say "Il est gentil" but not "C'est gentil" because "gentil" is an adjective ("c'est gentil" is a correct sentence but doesn't carry the same meaning)

Nouns that describe people on the long term (professions, nationalities, religions…) can use both constructions: "il est étudiant" and "c'est un étudiant" both sound fine (because it can basically act like an adjective)

[karmic lake]

Oh I am actually new to this, so everything that goes after Pronoun + être must be adjectives or nouns regarded as adjectives?

[meager lintel]

Oh I skipped over a few things, thinking it was what you were reviewing already.
It's just about whether to describe people with "il/elle est" or "c'est"

Il/elle are the main translation for he/she, and "ce/c' " is usually reserved for inanimate things. Although, there are cases where you'd want to use it when describing people

describing someone with an adjective: use "il/elle"
he's pretty tall => il est assez grand
she's in danger => elle est en danger

describing someone with a noun: use "ce"
he's my brother => c'est mon frère
she's a famous singer => c'est une chanteuse célèbre

describing a profession/nationality/religion...: use any
he's a baker => il est boulanger / c'est un boulanger

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/cest-vs-il-est/

[karmic lake]

This is insightful!

So any pronoun (il, elle, tu, je, vous, nous, ...) that is used to described people must be followed by être and adjectives?

[ionic gazelle]

You can for example say "je suis un chanteur".
This sort of thing only happens with the third person singular/plural.

[karmic lake]

thanks for clearing that up, I actually find it hard looking up anything that describes about your "third person singular/plural" thing but that is in accordance with what my text is using. So could I say "Je suis un étudiant canadien" and "Je suis étudiant"?