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English is very rich in cleft constructions.
Basically, a cleft sentence is a grammatical
construction with information broken into two clauses, to
emphasize one part of the sentence. We can do this by adding
certain words or phrases to the beginning of the sentence. |
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First of all, let us check this chart... |
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BASIC
SENTENCE |
Ann stole a book from the library last
week. |
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Emphasizing
SUBJECT |
It was
Ann who/that
stole a book from the library last week. |
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Emphasizing
OBJECT |
It was
a book that
Ann stole from the library last week. |
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Emphasizing
TIME |
It was
last week
that Ann stole a book from the library. |
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Emphasizing
PLACE |
It was
from the library
that Ann stole a book last week. |
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And now let us see the grammar... |
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EMPHASIS # 1: Beginning with What or All |
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We can make some kinds of sentences more emphatic by
beginning with What (= the thing) or All (= the only thing)
+ clause + be, and then the part of the sentence we want to
emphasize. Check these examples: |
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I need a coffee. |
What I need is
a coffee. |
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I don't like the weather
here. |
What I don't like here is
the
weather. |
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I just want to travel. |
All I want is
to travel. |
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I only touched it! |
All I did was
touch it. |
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EMPHASIS # 2: Beginning with What happens is / was |
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To emphasize an event or sequence of events, we can
begin with What happens is (that)... or What happened was (that)...
Check these examples: |
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You do a test and then you
have
an interview. |
What happens is
(that)
you do a test and then you have an interview. |
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We left our passports at
home. |
What happened was
(that) we
left
our passports at home. |
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EMPHASIS # 3: Beginning with The person who... etc. |
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We can also make part of a sentence more emphatic by
beginning with an expression like The person who..., The place
where..., The first / last time that..., The reason why...,
etc. + clause + be, with the emphasized part of the sentence at
the end. Check these examples: |
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I spoke to the manager. |
The person (who
/ that) I spoke to was
the manager. |
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We stayed in a five-star
hotel. |
The place where we stayed
was
a
five-star hotel. |
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I last saw him on Saturday. |
The last time I saw him was
on
Saturday. |
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I bought it because it was
cheap. |
The reason (why
/ that) I bought it was
that / because it was cheap. |
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EMPHASIS # 4: Beginning with It |
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We can also use It is / was + the emphasized
part of the sentence + a relative clause. Check below how to do it: |
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A boy in my class won the
prize. |
It was a boy in my class who
won the
prize. |
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We had the meeting last
Friday. |
It was last Friday when
we had
the meeting. |
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They charged us extra for
the wine. |
It was the wine (that)
they
charged us extra for. |
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NOTE: If the emphasized part
of the sentence is a pronoun, we normally use the
objective pronoun after It is or It was.
Example: It was him who paid the bill. NOT
It was he who paid the
bill. |
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On the next page you will be able to
practise this grammar. |
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