Word
C'est à la cime de l'arbre que l'aigle niche.
Meaning
It is at the top of the tree that the eagle nests.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of C'est à la cime de l'arbre que l'aigle niche.
l'arbre
the tree (m)
de
of / from / any (in negative sentences) / about (concerning)
à
at / to / in (general locations) / about (what one thinks about / reacts to)
c'est
it is, that is
Questions & Answers about C'est à la cime de l'arbre que l'aigle niche.
Why do we use que here instead of où, since à la cime de l'arbre is a place?
In French cleft sentences, when you emphasize a prepositional phrase (like à la cime de l'arbre), you always use que to connect it to the rest of the sentence. Because the location preposition (à) is already in the emphasized part, using où would be redundant. You only use où if the emphasized part lacks the preposition, as in C'est l'arbre où l'aigle niche.
Is cime the usual word for the "top" of something?
Could I reverse the subject and verb at the end and say ...que niche l'aigle?
Yes! In relative clauses introduced by que, French often allows subject-verb inversion when the subject is a noun (like l'aigle). Both que l'aigle niche and que niche l'aigle are perfectly correct, though the inverted form sounds a bit more literary.
Does the verb nicher share a meaning with the English word "niche"?