The French word "est" (as in "Il est") is not pronounced the same as the French word "est" (as in "va à l'est"). There's definitely several cases of irregularit

The French word "est" (as in "Il est") is not pronounced the same as the French word "est" (as in "va à l'est"). There's definitely several cases of irregularity in French pronunciation ("clef" is another good one--usually you pronounce a final 'f' consonant, but not in that word!), and the consonant cluster "il" is so inconsistently pronounced that you might as well flip a coin to determine if it should be pronounced with an 'l' sound or a 'y' ('j' in IPA) sound.