While this is true (arrays are multiple objects of the same type packed together, while pointers only store memory addresses), it doesn’t make much difference between their usage, which is why the shortcut “array are pointers” is usually taken.

The only difference between them that I can think of (regarding usage, not semantics) are :

• no pointer arithmetic can be done on arrays
• actual in-memory object size differ (as reported by sizeof())

char a[5] = "12345";
char *p = a;

printf("a => %d bytes\n", sizeof(a)); // 5 bytes
printf("p => %d bytes\n", sizeof(p)); // 8 bytes (on amd64)

printf("++p: %s\n", ++p); // 2345
printf("++a: %s\n", ++a); // compilation error: cannot increment value of type 'char[5]' (clang 14.0.0)

But IMO when you use any of these techniques (in-memory object size or pointer arithmetic), you should already know the difference between both.

I’ve happily used this shortcut to teach pointers to newcomers in C. Arrays are a much simpler concept to understand than pointers, so once they got it settled and start dealing with pointers I leverage their knowledge of arrays to explain pointers. I mention that there are subtle differences of course, but also that they shouldn’t care about it just yet. And I think that anyone who ever tried to teach pointers to a student will agree with me there: pointers are complex enough on their own to bother mentioning the differences I stated above.

sadly when passing argument arrays become pointer

 void f(char my_array[5]) {
 }

is actually:

 void f(char *my_array) {
 }

at least for my memories of circa 2002