Ça = that, this, it (pronoun)

Hi Roy,

If you take a look at the following Kwiziq lesson, you will see the different uses of 'on' and their equivalence in English , one of which being 'people'-

https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/revision/grammar/on-can-mean-we-one-and-people

Hope this helps!

Can you post a sentence as an example?

Bonjour Malik !

Thanks to your feedback, I've now updated the lesson to make the note clearer :)

I hope that's helpful!
Bonne journée !

Bonsoir Nora, Since I do not have the precise question referred to, this may be a bit of a guess. The definitive pronoun «ça» translates as «that, it» ; however, «celui-là» translates to «that one». Depending on the phrase in question it would be two different senses to the phrase.

Hi Nora, It will be a matter of context. Ça (informal) / Cela (formal) -- impersonal pronoun Celui / celle-là -- demonstrative pronoun The choice depends upon the context and to what is being referred in the sentence. Regards, Alan ( Non-native speaker)

Hi Nora,

Celui/Celle-là mean 'that one ' ,  when you are comparing two things and highlight one of them.

Ça is the contraction of Cela meaning simply (this or) that.

Just different pronouns for different situations...

Hope that helps!  ( J'espère que ça vous aidera!)

Bonjour Nim, J'aime ça usually translates as I love that with ça being the contracted version of cela; however, je l'aime translates as I love it, I love him or I love her. Sometimes it is easier to understand the difference between two phrases simply by study how each translates. J'espère que cela vous aidera.

But from the examples:

Les lasagnes? J'adore ça!

Lasagna? I love it!

Bonjour Moushumi, Ça is a pronoun, "ca" does not exist in French. That said, sometimes capital letters don't include accents, so you might see "Ça veut dire" or "Ca veut dire." They mean exactly the same thing.

Bonjour Joakim ! Here is the nuance between "J'ai aussi regardé ça hier." and "Je l'ai aussi regardé hier.": - In the first sentence, "ça" brings emphasis to the thing you watched, therefore translating as "I watched THIS too yesterday."; - the second sentence is more neutral, and will be translated as "I watched IT too yesterday." . I hope that helps! À bientôt !

Bonjour Joakim !

To know when to use ça versus il/elle, please have a look at the following lesson:
https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/revision/grammar/when-to-use-cest-or-il-est-elle-est-to-say-it-is

Thanks to your question, we've also added this link to the current lesson.
Merci et à bientôt !

Thanks for the lesson link, Aurélie, but that lesson seems to be about "c'est" vs "il est". "ça" is a third alternative, right?