The difference between ça, çà and sa

13 oct. 2017 08:26 - language-swap

Niveau intermédiaire

“Sa” (his/her),“ça” (this) and “çà” (here) are French homophones but DO NOT have the same meaning.

The word “sa” is a possessive adjective and refers to the third person singular. It can be replaced by “ses” (their).
Example:
Sa voiture est garée devant la maison.
Ses voitures sont garées devant la maison.

“ça” is a demonstrative pronoun that familiarly replaces “ceci” (this) or “cela” (that).
Example:
Qu'il m'ait dit ça ne m'étonne pas.
Qu'il m'ait dit ceci/cela ne m'étonne pas.

While the word “çà”, not to be confused with “ça”, is an adverb that indicates the place and is mostly used in a ready-made expression “çà et là” (here and there).
Example:
J'ai retrouvé mes affaires çà et là.