What is "it" in French?

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Permalink Reply by Erwan on October 7, 2011 at 1:01pm

There is real equivalent to "it" in French but there is gender and this is how we determinate which pronoun between le/la is used.

In some construction you can use "c' " for "it". e.g.  "It's a shame"  C'est une honte.

Elle joue comment?   (oral speech)  is translated by "How does she play?"

"How to play it?" : Comment en joue-t-on?

 

on means nous but in the conjugation it's the 3rd singular person

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on October 7, 2011 at 4:23pm

The word "it" is actually a litte tricky to translate because there isn't a single equivalent in French. It depends on:

- whether "it" refers to a concrete thing or just a 'general idea'

- the gender of the thing that "it" refers to (remember that all French nouns have genders, even those representing inanimate objects), if indeed it refers to a concrete thing

- whether "it" is the subject or object in the sentence

 

1) referring to a 'concrete thing'

 

If "it" refers to a "concrete thing", then:

- as the subject, use il/elle (masculine/feminine): so to say "it is big", referring to a house (French maison = feminine): elle est grande

- as the object, use le/la, placed before the verb: so to say "I see it", referring to a house: je la vois; to say "I'm giving it to Marie", where "it" refers to a book (livre = masculine), je le donne à Marie.

 

2) Referring to a 'general idea'

 

- use ça (or cela in formal usage-- they're basically equivalent): Does it bother you if I put the TV on? = Ça te dérange si je mets la télé. Here "it" just means 'the idea in general of me turning the TV on' -- it doesn't refer to any specific noun with a gender.

- Also note: "I drink wine: it helps me to relax." = "Je bois du vin, ça m'aide à me détendre." The "it" here still refers to "the general idea of drinking wine in general", not to any specific wine.

- As the subject of être, use ce (or c' before a vowel) rather than ça.

- In informal speech, speakers sometimes use ça/ce anyway even where a specific noun could be imagined, e.g. in practice you can really say either Elle est grande, la maison or C'est grand, la maison (the first is a bit more formal).

 

3) "It" as subject of impersonal verbs and weather verbs

 

There are a few so-called "impersonal" verbs and constructions where il is used, e.g. il faut = it is necessary to..., ...is needed; Il s'agit de... = What this is is..., it is a question/matter of..., what is at stake is...

With many other impersonal constructions, you can use either il or cela/ça, e.g. "It appears difficult to believe that..." > Il/cela/ça paraît difficile de croire que... = "It appears difficult to believe that...", with the choice depending on formality.

Also weather verbs use il as the subject in standard usage, and sometimes ça in informal usage: il pleut/ça pleut = it's raining.

 

4) Some other stuff I've probably forgotten to mention...

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Permalink Reply by Andreea Kietzmann on October 10, 2011 at 6:53pm

i agree with you, Neil.

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