What is a cleft sentence? A cleft sentence is derived from a simple sentence by dividing it into two clauses : e.g. John broke the window. (simple sentence) → It was John who broke the window. (cleft) → It was the window that John broke. (cleft) There are two types of cleft sentences: * It- Cleft sentences * Wh- Cleft sentences

It-Cleft Sentences: form of verb to be Note that the verb is always singular (agreeing with subject it), even if the complement is plural. It was the king who cried. It was the children who cried. It was me who knocked at the door. It was us who knocked at the door.

It-Cleft Sentences It-Clefts offer the writer/speaker the possibility of giving prominence to specific elements in the sentence. Neutral: Tom saw Will Smith at the awards party last night. It was Tom who saw Will Smith at the awards party last night. (Subject) It was Will Smith that Tom saw at the awards party last night. (Object) It was last night/at the awards party that Tom saw Will Smith. ( Adverbial Phrases)

It-Cleft Sentences Pattern It+a form of be+emphasised word/phrase+that/which/who clause. It was his exploration of the cultural clashes that brought him the award.

Formal Inversion in It -Cleft Sentences We can reverse it+verb and the emphasised element in it -cleft sentences, but ONLY in a VERY FORMAL, literary style: And thus Cézanne it was who took the first steps towards Impressionism.

Wh- Cleft Sentences (Pseudo-Cleft sentences) Wh-clause (in most of the cases What)+(subject) + part of the verb to be + emphasised word/phrase: What I saw + was + a bright light. We can use this pattern to highlight the action in the sentence.

Wh-Cleft Sentences Like it- clefts, wh-clefts give the writer/speaker the possibility of highlighting a particular item. John gave his mother a necklace. (unmarked simple sentence) possible wh-clefts (highlighted elements in bold) What John did was give his mother a necklace. What John gave his mother was a necklace. You can also find Wh-Cleft sentences with WHEN and WHERE: Where the boss has his office is on the second floor. When I am not tired is in the evenings.

Wh-Cleft Sentences In this type of sentences, the emphasised phrase contains an infinitive with or without to: What the manager did was (to) change the formation of the team. If the emphasised verb is in the continuous or perfect, the form of do matches: What the boys are doing is taking Sandy to the beach. What the new members have done is taken their seats in the assembly.

Wh- Cleft sentences Inversion We can reverse the order of the parts in wh-cleft sentences and put the emphasised part at the beginning: The man appeared to be engrossed in his book, but he wasn’t reading. Watching the factory opposite was what he was really doing. Inversion

Other types of Cleft- Sentences PERSON ¨The person who told me about it was Mike¨ THING ¨The thing/all/something/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 of my life¨ ¨It wasn’t until I met him that I knew how modest he was¨ REASON ¨The reason why I fell out with her was her extreme rudeness¨