Learn French: Ce que nous avons entendu, c'est une blague hilarante.

Ce que nous avons entendu, c'est une blague hilarante.

What we heard is a hilarious joke.

Breakdown of Ce que nous avons entendu, c'est une blague hilarante.

une

a / an (feminine)

nous

we / us (object pronoun)

Questions & Answers about Ce que nous avons entendu, c'est une blague hilarante.

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

Ce que is used because the "what" is the object of the verb avons entendu (we heard). We are the ones doing the hearing, and the joke is the thing being heard. If "what" were the subject doing the action (for example, "what happened"), you would use ce qui instead.

Why do we need the c' in c'est? Why not just say ...entendu, est une blague?

When you start a sentence with Ce que or Ce qui to add emphasis, French grammar requires you to use c'est (or ce sont for plurals) to introduce the second half. It acts as a necessary bridge, so the sentence literally translates to "What we heard, it is a hilarious joke."

Since une blague is feminine, why doesn't the past participle agree and become entendue?

This is a great catch! In the past tense, verbs using avoir only agree with a direct object if it comes before the verb. Here, the preceding direct object is que, which refers back to the neutral pronoun ce. Since ce is grammatically neutral (treated as masculine), entendu does not get an extra -e.

Why is the adjective hilarante placed after the noun blague?