fartprincess.

[ivory aspen]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

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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.

[hardy mist]

he's talking about the "courant d'air" and she says "c'est froid", the ce refers back to the courant d'air

[signal cove]

ohhhh okayyyy merci

[severe bramble]

I would sort of disagree with that - if she was directly referring to the courant d'air, she would say "il est froid".

"c'est froid" on the other hand refers to the general sensation caused by the courant d'air

Similarly, in a scenario where someone is showing you their new house, if you commented "elle est belle !" you would be saying that the house itself is beautiful, while if you said "c'est beau !" you would be describing the general scene you are beholding, which depending on where you're standing might include the house, the garden, the gate, etc.

[hardy mist]

there is certainly that nuance, thanks for adding!
but I think that in either case the "ce" or "il" are referring back to the courant d'air
it's just that using "ce" is speaking sorta... generally whereas using "il" would be speaking more directly about the courant

[signal cove]

i know we say "il fait froid" for the weather but what if you walk into someones house and it's cold? would you say "c'est froid" or the prior ?

and what about time ? do people say "c'est" instead of "il est" ?

[hardy mist]

il fait froid (dans la maison)

for time "il est" is standard, but some regions use "c'est" (some parts of southern France)

[signal cove]

when can you use "c'est" instead of "il fait" ?

[hardy mist]

they're quite different

[signal cove]

how so ?

comment ca 🤓

[severe bramble]

"c'est froid" would refer to the sensation you feel upon touching something or something touching you

For example, if you ask someone to help you apply sunscreen onto your back and the sunscreen turns out to be really cold when they start applying it, you can yell out "aaah c'est froid !"

Which would be like saying "aaah that's cold!" in English

You're not specifically saying that the sunscreen is cold, otherwise you'd have said "elle est froide" (it - as in the sunscreen - is cold). You're just saying that whatever is happening is producing coldness.

It's more general than "il est froid / elle est froide", which refers to a specific object

and it doesn't refer to the ambiant temperature like "il fait froid" does