c'est or il/Elle est?
If I am translating a question that begins with "it is" or "she/he is" in English into French, how do I know whether to use c'est or il/Elle est ? I can't figure out why it is sometimes one way and sometimes another. For instance, I saw " she is a teacher" translated C'est une institutrice. Why use c'est instead of Elle est?

Question

c'est or il/Elle est?
If I am translating a question that begins with "it is" or "she/he is" in English into French, how do I know whether to use c'est or il/Elle est ? I can't figure out why it is sometimes one way and sometimes another.  For instance, I saw " she is a teacher" translated C'est une institutrice.  Why use c'est instead of Elle est?

Answer

From what I can think of, we will use ''c'est un/une'' if a noun (or adjective + noun) comes after it. ''C'est un médecin '' '' C'est une pomme'' ''C'est un gros chat. ''
You will use ''c'est'' to point out something.
In fact, it's quite complicated, because 'c'est' and ''il/elle est' mean the same thing, but I would recommend using 'c'est' only because it feels more natural.

So, to the question '' Quel est son traval? '' (what is her job), you could answer:
''C'est une institutrice '' or ''Elle est institutrice '' (note that there is no 'une' before 'institutrice' in the later)

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