"He is my colleague."
Translation:C'est mon collègue.
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Why is "Il est mon collègue wrong"? Does 'Il est" not mean the same as "C'est"? Thanks
849
They mean the same thing, but they're not interchangeable. Read more here: http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa032500.htm
But you're talking about a colleague, who is a person not a situation or object. Shouldn't it be it "il" instead of "c'est" in this case?
The key (i think from my understanding of the article linked above) is the "my" in "my colleague." It's a modifier. The example given in the article is that "Il est avocat" and "C'est un avocat" both mean "He's a lawyer." You use "c'est" for the second one because "un" is a modifier, and I believe the same thing is in effect with "mon collègue."
- 849
In English, when we introduce nouns, we make a distinction between people (he/she) and inanimate objects (it). In French the same distinction isn't there - everything gets called "It". Here's a more in depth article on their differences:
http://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/cest-versus-il-elle-est
If that doesn't do it for you just search for "C'est vs il est" there's plenty of stuff out there.
Even in Polish there aren't such stupid rules as for "c'est" and "il est". This is the only language which I know and I know a few, in which you have to say "he is" differently according to the situation. Someone must be really bored to come up with such an idea.
- 1296
I tried to do he is my colleague with machine translation. Both Google Translate and DeepL Translator give out c'est mon collègue. However, when it comes to she is my colleague, Google gives out elle est ma collègue whereas DeepL recommends c'est ma collègue How tricky it is!
OMG, that's really a challenging set of conditions for use of the two phrases!
So it's because of the word "mon" that you use c'est over il? E.g. "Il est collègue" is ok, but because collègue is modified, you have to say "C'est mon collègue"?
Well! This isn't confusing at all.... Can someone please explain why; Il est, is not 'he is'. But; 'C'est' means 'he is'?
so "he is my colleague and she is my colleague' = "c'est mon collegue et c'est ma collegue", only? or can il/elle work here if this is what is being emphasized? Thinking kindergarten style introductions for sentence style.
It's telling me that collègue is masculine. That's not right, is it?
@sldlansing
As your own reference points out - "collègue" is both the masculine and feminine spelling.
Elle =she , il = he, but as above people have explained, it should be c'est
I did not understand this translation. "C'est" translates as "this is" or "it is". It should be "il est" for "he is".
Did you read the discussion above? Better to check existing posts before adding a new one.