Word
Ce que la nuit est splendide !
Meaning
How splendid the night is!
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Ce que la nuit est splendide !
être
to be
la nuit
the night
splendide
splendid
ce que
how (exclamative)
Questions & Answers about Ce que la nuit est splendide !
Why is the adjective splendide at the very end of the sentence?
In English, we put the adjective right after "How" ("How splendid the night is!"). But in French exclamations with ce que, que, or comme, you keep the normal sentence order (Subject + Verb + Adjective) and just put the exclamative word at the front. So it translates literally to "How much the night is splendid!"
Could I use que or comme instead of ce que in this sentence?
I usually translate ce que as "what". Why does it mean "how" here?
When placed at the very beginning of an exclamation, ce que stops acting as a relative pronoun ("what" or "that which") and instead becomes an adverb of intensity. In these exclamatory sentences, it translates to "how" or "how much" to emphasize the adjective splendide.