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What is the capital of Tunisia?

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What is the capital of Tunisia?

« Il » vs « ça » vs « ce » for inanimate subjects

Il devient un papillon is quite uncommon as a sentence, the usual one is elle devient un papillon as the only well known entity that can become a butterfly is a caterpillar, i.e. une chenille which is a feminine word but in any case, both il and elle devient un papillon are correct.

  1. How these sentences should be translated in English is off topic here but I would probably simply suggest "It becomes a butterfly."

  2. A pronoun for a non human/non animal subject is no different from a human/animal one, it can be either il or elle. Ça is a shortcut of cela and is used to design things that are usually around the speaker like this/that, not persons nor animals unless you want to be rude. I don’t see how ce could be used as a subject alone here as ce can only be used with être and not devenir but in any case, ce is not restricted to non human/non animals.

Ce devient un papillon is incorrect while c’est un papillon is correct.

Ça devient un papillon might be used when something inanimate became a butterfly, for example :

  • Qu’est-ce que ça devient un cocon ?

  • Ça devient un papillon !

Did the original sentence refer to a male human becoming a butterfly as in the Zhuangzi story? Zhuangzi rêve qu’il devient un papillon qui rêve qu’il est Zhuangzi qui rêve qu’il devient un papillon… et il se réveille (mais où et quand ?).
If not the Il is strange in French too.

One would rather use ça (or cela) for the subject pronoun:

Ça devient un papillon.

Une chenille, ça devient un papillon.

ça is neutral in the sense you are looking for, it is not sensitive to gender or animacy.

ça and ce are easy to confuse but the first one can be used as a clitic subject pronoun in general (and it is singular) while ce only cooccurs with ÊTRE (and can be singular or plural):

Ça va, ça vient, ça passe, ça marche, … vs ça sera, *ça seront

*Ce va, ?ce vient, *ce passe, *ce marche, … vs ce sera, ce seront

Might it not be that the word papillon here is not referring to a butterfly but to a kind of person who goes from one thing to another in a kind of coquettish way, a kind of dilatante.

 

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What is the capital of Tunisia?