Cleft Sentences

Cleft Sentences

1. Are used...

   • to help us focus on a particular part of the sentence
   • to emphasise what we want to say

2. Are useful in...

   • writing where we cannot use intonation for purposes of focus or emphasis
   • speech.

3. Cleft structures include

   • the reason why
   • the thing that
   • the person/people who
   • the place where
   • the day when
   • what-clauses
     • linked to the clause that we want to focus on with is or was.
     • often used with verbs expressing an emotive response to something like
       • adore
       • dislike
       • enjoy
       • hate
       • like
       • loathe
       • love
       • need
       • prefer
       • want
     • often used with does/do/did and with the verb happen when we want to give emphasis to the whole sentence
     • use all instead of what in a cleft structure if you want to focus on one particular thing and nothing else

4. preparatory it

   • use it in cleft sentences and join the words that we want to focus on to the relative clause with...
     • that
     • who
     • when