What's the difference between il est, c'est and il y a?
It's clearly one of the most common mistakes and biggest challenges in French. I summarized all the key points below in order for you to avoid repeating this!
"Il" as impersonal pronoun
Whenever you talk about the weather, you must use "il", no matter the verb. In that case, "il" is an impersonal pronoun, it is not a person. For instance "il pleut, il fait froid" meaning "it is raining, it is cold". You also use it with some specific grammatical structures such as "il + verb + de/que" "il est nécessaire de parler français, il faut que tu parles français". "Ça" sometimes replaces "il" to avoid confusion between pronouns. When I say "il marche" "he walks", it is not the same as "ça marche" "it works"!
C'est/ce sont vs il y a
"C'est" is used to introduce and identify something/someone. For example, "c'est un livre intéressant" here I am identifying the book as interesting. "Il y a" means "there is" or "there are" in English and is used to indicate the existence or presence of something. For example, "Il y a un chat dans le jardin" means "There is a cat in the garden."
In the fairy tales, we say "il était une fois" "once upon a time". It comes from Old French. We used to say "il est" "there is" like in English but it changed over time. Today, we say "il y a" but kept the old formula in books!
C'est vs il est
It really depends on what you want to say. "C'est" is followed by an adjective/adverbe when "il est" is followed by an adjective/adverbe and a preposition "de/que". "Il est" is often used for official situation "il est important d'être à l'heure" "it is important to be punctual".
You will find everything and more in the video!
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