Questions & Answers about Ce n'est pas tout à fait vrai.
Why does this sentence use ce n'est pas instead of il n'est pas?
In French, when you refer back to a general idea, statement, or situation with 'that is' or 'it is', you use c'est (and ce n'est pas in the negative). You would only use il n'est pas if you were referring to a specific masculine noun mentioned earlier, like a book or a dog. How does tout à fait translate to 'completely'?
Tout à fait is a very common fixed expression that means 'completely', 'entirely', or 'quite'. Word-for-word, it looks like 'all to done', which doesn't make much sense in English! Because it is an idiom, it is best to memorize tout à fait as a single, unchanging chunk of vocabulary. If the statement I'm talking about is feminine (une phrase), does vrai change to vraie?
Not in this exact sentence structure! Because you are using ce (meaning 'that' or 'it') to refer to a general idea rather than placing the adjective directly next to a specific noun, the adjective that follows is always in its default masculine singular form. So, vrai stays masculine here. Could I just say 'très vrai' instead of 'tout à fait vrai'?
You could, but it changes the meaning slightly. Très vrai means 'very true', whereas tout à fait vrai emphasizes that something is 'completely true' or 'entirely true'. Learn Ce n'est pas tout à fait vrai and more in French
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