Learn French: Ce que je n'ai pas aimé, c'est le sketch de cet humoriste. - What I did not like is this comedian's sketch.

Ce que je n'ai pas aimé, c'est le sketch de cet humoriste.

What I did not like is this comedian's sketch.

Breakdown of Ce que je n'ai pas aimé, c'est le sketch de cet humoriste.

avoir

to have

not (used before the verb)

pas

not (used after the verb)

Questions & Answers about Ce que je n'ai pas aimé, c'est le sketch de cet humoriste.

Why do we use ce que here instead of ce qui?

Ce que is used because it acts as the direct object of the verb aimé (you are saying what it is that you didn't like). The subject of the action is je. If 'what' were the subject doing the action, you would use ce qui. For example: Ce qui est drôle... (What is funny...).

Why use the Ce que... c'est... structure instead of just saying Je n'ai pas aimé...?

This structure adds emphasis! Just like in English, saying 'What I didn't like is the sketch' draws much more attention to the sketch than simply saying 'I didn't like the sketch.' This framing technique is extremely common in everyday French.

Why is it cet humoriste instead of ce humoriste?

Humoriste is a masculine noun, so the standard word for 'this' would be ce. However, because humoriste starts with a mute 'h' (a vowel sound), we must change ce to cet to make the pronunciation flow smoothly.

Why does the negation pas come before aimé?

In compound tenses like the passé composé, the negative pieces (ne and pas) wrap around the conjugated helping verb, which is ai in this sentence. So you get je n'ai pas aimé instead of putting the pas at the very end.