CLEFT SENTENCES

Advanced English
What are they?
• A gramatical construction with information broken into two clauses, to provide
extra focus to one piece of information. For example
• It was his voice that I loved
• What I want is something to eat
It cleft sentences
It + be + highlighted clause + that/who clause
SENTENCE John stole a book from the library last week
Subect It was John who stole a book from the library last week
Object It was a book that John stole from the library last week
Time
Place
What cleft sentences
To focus on a Word/phrase What + clause + be + highlighted clause

What I hate about him is his rudeness

To focus on an action What + subject + do + be + infinitive clause

What John did yesterday was steal a book from the

library
TO focus on a whole sentence What happens + be + clause

What happens is we always end up having a row

Other cleft sentences
Person The person who told me about it was Mike
Thing The one thing I want is a cup of tea
Place The place where he went for some business is Turkey
Time The year when I graduated was the most difficult time of my life
It wasn’t until I met him that I knew how nice he was
Reason The reason why I fell out with her was her extreme rudeness
Question time:
1. I did everything
1. It was EVERYTHING THAT I DID
2. We need action, not words.
1. It is ACTION THAT/WHAT WE NEED, NOT WORDS
2. What we NEED IS ACTION, NOT WORDS
3. All we need IS ACTION, NOT WORDS
3. John went to Turkey for some business
1. It was John WHO WENT TO TURKEY FOR SOME BUSINESS
2. It is Turkey WHERE JOHN WENT TO FOR SOME BUSINESS
3. It is some business THAT JOHN WENT TO TURKEY FOR
4. What John did WAS GO TO TURKEY FOR SOME BUSINESS
5. The reason why JOHN WENT TO TURKEY WAS FOR SOME BUSINESS
6. The place where JOHN WENT FOR SOME BUSINESS WAS TURKEY