C’est que… = “The reason is that…”
There are times when C’est que…, followed by a noun clause, should be understood to mean:
- “The reason is that” or “This is because”
- more conversationally, “The fact is, The thing is, It’s just that”
In other words, what follows the que is an explanation or the cause of the preceding statement. In the following examples, note how there is a big pause, or break, before the c’est que.
- Gertrude tourmentait Amélie à toute occasion; c’est qu‘elle lui enviait sa grâce naturelle et sa manière ouverte. (Gertrude tormented Amelia at every opportunity; this was because she envied her her natural charm and her open manner.)
- Franck refusa de sortir avec ses amis; c’est que l’argent lui manquait. (Frank refused to go out with his friends; the reason was, he didn’t have the money.)
And here are some real-life French examples.
Je ne vais pas trop fort, je ne suis pas trop brutal ? Je vous chatouille peut-être un peu ? mais c’est que je ne voudrais pas toucher le velours de la robe pour ne pas le friper.
I’m not going too fast, I’m not too violent? I’m tickling you maybe a little? It’s just that, I’m afraid of wrinkling the velvet of your gown.—Proust, Un Amour de Swann
[Societies do not remain stationary, even when the seem to do so;] lorsque nous les croyons stationnaires, c’est que leurs mouvements nous échappent. Ce sont des gens qui marchent ; ils paraissent immobiles a ceux qui courent.
…when we think them stationary, this is because their movements escape us. They are people walking; they seem motionless to people running. —Alexis de Tocqueville, De la démocratie en Amérique (1848) 2.2
Il est clair que la vie des gardiens appartiendrait aux détenus, si la force matérielle suffisait à ces derniers; mais la force morale leur manque. … C’est que les gardiens communiquent librement entre eux, concertent leurs efforts et ont toute la puissance de l’association; tandis que les condamnés, séparés les uns des autres par le silence, ont, malgré leur force numérique, toute la faiblesse de l’isolement.
It is clear that the lives of the guards would belong to the prisoners, if physical strength were all the latter needed, but what they are lacking is psychological strength. … This is because the guards communicate freely amongst themselves, combine their efforts, and have the full power of association, whereas the convicts, separated from each other by silence, have, in spite of their numerical strength, all the weakness of isolation.—Beaumont & Tocqueville, Du système pénitentiaire aux E-U
Si la ψυχή d’Aristote, entéléchie d’un corps vivant, est moins spirituelle que notre « âme », c’est que son σῶμα, déjà imbibé d’idée, est moins corporel que notre « corps ».
If Aristotle’s ψυχή, the entelechy of a living body, is less spiritual than our ‘soul,’ this is because his σῶμα, already thoroughly imbued with idea, is less corporeal than our ‘body.’—Bergson, Evolution créatrice 4
How Did C’est que Get to Have This Meaning?
I surmise that it did so by an omission. You can imagine a passage running like the following:
Dans la théologie juive, ainsi que dans l’islamique, on s’interroge sans cesse sur le caractère du Prophète. Pourquoi une telle insistance? Quelle en est la raison? C’est que, au centre et au commencement de l’une et l’autre religion se trouve un Prophète fondateur, législateur et hagiographe.
(In Jewish theology, as well as in Islamic, there is continual investigation into the character of the Prophet. Why such an emphasis? What is the reason for it? It is that, at the center of both religions, there is a Prophet who is both founder, legislator, and scriptural author.)
Then imagine that, over time, writers began to omit the words in boldface. The c’est que, originally translatable as “it is that,” now needs to be translated as “the reason is that” to make up for the missing portion.
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