onedirection.

[hardy hearth]

Please be patient

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

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

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.

[foggy wing]

ce + est

cette isn't a pronoun, so you can never have cette est

[fleet quarry]

Wait I didn’t know that ce was a pronoun

I thought it meant it

[foggy wing]

"it" is also a pronoun

ce can be translated contextually as "it" or "that"

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/indefinite-demonstrative-pronouns/
https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/demonstrative-adjectives/

[fleet quarry]

Ahh okay that’s why I got it confused with cette

Thank you!!

[cinder wraith]

c'est is also short for "cela est"

-# maybe

[fleet quarry]

What’s cela?

[cinder wraith]

cela and ceci are the closest thing to that and this french has in terms of pronouns... but cela is almost always shortened to ça and cela est sounds comically formal

[fleet quarry]

Ahhh okay thank you!

[foggy wing]

we can indeed say cela est, but since it's so frequently shortened to ça, and we don't really say ça est, you can think of i that way, i guess

[cinder wraith]

yeah the fact that you can say cela est but not ça est is pretty weird

[foggy wing]

i've never though about it really lol. ça est turns into c'est pretty easily if you say it quickly so

[reef crypt]

because ça turns into ce with être