No. 38 in French
c
The French word "c'" is a contraction of "ce," meaning "it" or "this" in English.
In a sentence
C'est un beau jour.
It's a beautiful day.
Here, 'C'' is used as a third-person neutral subject pronoun combined with the verb 'être' to denote 'it is'.
C'était difficile, mais je l'ai fait.
It was difficult, but I did it.
In this instance, 'C'' forms 'C'était', representing 'it was', combining with 'était' to indicate past tense.
C'est en essayant qu'on apprend.
It's by trying that one learns.
'C'' is used here to highlight a principle or fact generally applicable, equating to 'it is' in English for emphasis.
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