C’est urgent, appelle le médecin.

In everyday French, c’est + adjective is the most natural way to say things like it’s urgent / it’s important / it’s serious.

• C’est urgent = neutral, common, idiomatic: “It’s urgent.”
• Il est urgent is possible, but it’s usually followed by an infinitive:
  • Il est urgent de partir. = It’s urgent to leave.
  • Saying just Il est urgent. on its own sounds incomplete or overly formal/literary.

You would not say Ceci est urgent in normal speech; that sounds very written or “translated.”

With c’est + adjective, French often uses the masculine singular form of the adjective, even when the thing referred to could be feminine.

So:

• C’est urgent.
• C’est important.
• C’est normal.

You generally only change the gender/number if you explicitly name a noun after it:

• C’est une situation urgente. (feminine because situation is feminine)
• Ce sont des affaires urgentes. (feminine plural because affaires is feminine plural)

On its own, C’est urgent keeps the default masculine singular form urgent.

Appelle le médecin is the imperative (command form) of the verb appeler with tu as the implied subject.

• Tu appelles le médecin. = You call the doctor. (statement)
• Appelle le médecin. = Call the doctor. (command to you, singular/informal)

In French imperatives with tu, nous, vous, the subject pronoun is usually dropped:

• (Tu) viens ! → Viens ! (Come!)
• (Vous) appelez le médecin ! → Appelez le médecin ! (Call the doctor! – formal/plural)

Both come from appeler (to call):

• Appelle le médecin.

  • Imperative for tu (one person you know well, informal)
  • Addressing a friend, family member, child, etc.

• Appelez le médecin.

  • Imperative for vous (formal “you” or plural “you all”)
  • Addressing someone you don’t know well, speaking politely, or speaking to several people.

So C’est urgent, appelle le médecin. is informal; the formal/plural version would be:

• C’est urgent, appelez le médecin.

In French, you usually need an article (or another determiner) in front of a singular countable noun:

• le médecin (the doctor)
• un médecin (a doctor)
• ce médecin (this doctor)
• mon médecin (my doctor)

So appelle médecin is incorrect in standard French.

You could say:

• Appelle le médecin. = Call the doctor. (a specific one: often our / your usual doctor or the one we have in mind)
• Appelle un médecin. = Call a doctor. (any doctor, not a specific one)

French doesn’t use à with appeler in this meaning.

• Appeler quelqu’un = to call someone (on the phone or to shout to them)
  • Appelle le médecin. = Call the doctor.

If you say parler au médecin (to speak to the doctor), you use à because the verb is parler à.

• Parle au médecin. = Speak to the doctor.

But with appeler, you call directly the person:

• ✅ Appelle le médecin.
• ❌ Appelle au médecin. (incorrect in this sense)

It can mean either, depending on context:

• Call on the phone

  • In modern life, this is the most common interpretation:
  • C’est urgent, appelle le médecin. → most people will imagine “phone the doctor.”

• Call out / summon

  • In some contexts (e.g. someone nearby), it could mean “call out to the doctor” or “summon the doctor”.

The sentence itself doesn’t specify how you call; the situation usually makes that clear.

Pronunciation (in standard French):

• C’est → /sɛ/ (like “seh”)
• urgent → /yʁ.ʒɑ̃/

Key details:

• C’est urgent: you usually make a liaison:
  • /sɛ‿zyʁ.ʒɑ̃/
  • It sounds like “seh zyr-zhahn”.
• The final -t of c’est is normally silent, but before a vowel (as in urgent) you pronounce a /z/ sound linking the words.

Médecin is pronounced approximately /med.sɛ̃/:

• mé- = /me/ (like “meh” but closed “e”)
• -dec- = here written -d-
  • e but the d is not clearly released
• -cin = /sɛ̃/ (nasal sound, a bit like “sang” without closing the mouth at the end)

Spelling: médecin (with an acute accent: é).

About meaning:

• un médecin = a doctor (medical profession, neutral and common in written French, official term)
• un docteur = also “a doctor,” more informal/spoken, also used for PhDs.

In this sentence, both are possible:

• Appelle le médecin.
• Appelle le docteur.

Médecin is slightly more neutral and standard.

Yes, but there is a nuance:

• C’est urgent.

  • Describes the situation with an adjective.
  • Very direct and common in speech.

• C’est une urgence.

  • Uses the noun urgence.
  • Means “This is an emergency.”
  • Sounds a little more like you’re classifying the situation (e.g. at a hospital desk: Is this an emergency or not?).

In everyday speech to someone you know, C’est urgent, appelle le médecin. is the more natural phrasing.

The imperative is the normal way to give instructions or orders in French:

• Appelle le médecin. = Call the doctor. (do it now / as soon as possible)

You could use the future, but it changes the tone:

• Tu appelleras le médecin.
  
  • Literally “You will call the doctor.”
  • Sounds more like a plan, an order for later, or written instructions.

Because it’s urgent, the imperative is the most natural:

• C’est urgent, appelle le médecin.

You need two separate negatives:

1. Ce n’est pas urgent.
   • ne … pas around est.
2. N’appelle pas le médecin.
   • For the negative imperative, ne / n’ goes before the verb and pas after it.

Together:

• Ce n’est pas urgent, n’appelle pas le médecin. (informal tu)
• Ce n’est pas urgent, n’appelez pas le médecin. (formal/plural vous)