Too often we think of C in terms of commands. C is a matter of _operators_. Consider "=", say in the statement

y=1+x=3;

Why and how this works is foreign to most beginners. Likewise (ok, this is C++ but the point remains)

cout<<1+x;

Isn't a command to display 1+x. The output is the result of inserting the computed value into couture. There is a semantic difference.

Groking operators early is key to understanding C well.