Question on étudiant.e...

Question

I'm fully aware that student counts as an occupation, that the article comes in when there's an adjective, etc. What's confusing me is that is I've encountered people using the article with student (and only with student, no other occupations), with even some statements from native speakers online who say "X est un étudiant" feels more natural to them. I've also seen some other programs teach this as well; I'm well aware this is a different program, and am only stating how muddy waters seem on this! 
 
Is there a variation or shift occurring in the language (akin to the après que + subj. vs indic.)? Thanks!

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Brittany,
A similar reply was posted in the forum a while ago: Je suis un élève
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !

Answer

As I understand it, "X est un étudiant" and "X est étudiant" are both grammatically correct, but they are used in different contexts."X est un étudiant" is the equivalent of "c'est un étudiant". It's identificational; it answers the question "who is X?"."X est étudiant" is the equivalent of "il est étudiant". It tells you something about X who we already know.Suppose we wanted to give a hypothetical example involving a student who we've decided to call "X". We could begin: "X est un étudiant".