Bonjour, French learners! In this Word of the Week blog, we are studying the word ça.
As some of you might not have yet encountered the ‘curly c’ or cedilla in French, listen to the audio clip to hear how ça should sound:
While ça is a very short and snappy word, its depth of meaning and its range of use is certainly not limited. It’s a word that you’re likely to hear in almost every French conversation at some point. Ça means that in English, but it can also translate as this or it.
However, if you think about how we use the word that in English, it has a very diverse range of uses – ça is only relevant to a specific type of grammatical situation:
- I think that it’s fair. Je pense que c’est juste.
- That has nothing to do with it. Ça n’a rien à voir.
In terms of grammar, the first use of that is a conjunction (que). The second use of that is a demonstrative pronoun (ça) – this is the one we’re interested in today.
To add some extra confusion, please also be aware that sa is a homonym of ça, so you’ll need to use context when listening to help you work out what’s going on. You can read more about this on our Word of the Week blog about son.
After all that, using ça really isn’t as complicated as it sounds – honestly! French speakers use it very frequently and it’s pretty simple to pick up. Let’s get into some examples:
Ça va ? How are you? (literally ‘how is that/it going?’)
Où ça ? Where’s that?
C’est ça. That’s right; Exactly; That’s it.
Ça y est ! That’s it!; You’ve got it! (as in, you’ve achieved something and it’s correct)
Ah ça alors ! Oh!; Goodness! (used as an exclamation of surprise)
Pas de ça ! Stop that!; We’ll have none of that!
Et avec ça ? And with that? (imagine a waiter asking this in a restaurant)
Je n’ai jamais dit ça. I never said that.
Ça n’a pas marché. That didn’t work.
Ne touche pas ça ! Don’t touch that!
As ça is so commonly used, it’s a really important one to learn and remember. While there are unlimited examples of its usage, we hope that you’ve managed to pick up the main points! That wasn’t too difficult, was it?
Written by Holly Tarbet, freelance copywriter and editor.
All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.
