Cleft sentences
Apprentissage rapide
Cleft sentences reorganise syntactic information into two constituent clauses to establish unambiguous thematic focus and contrastive emphasis.
À retenir
- Construct it-clefts to isolate and foreground subjects, direct objects, or circumstantial adjuncts within an introductory it-matrix.
- Formulate wh-clefts and inverted wh-clefts to focus on dynamic actions, communicative goals, or whole propositions.
- Employ all-clefts and introductory phrase clefts such as the reason why, the person who, and the place where to fine-tune focus.
Exemples
- 1It was her visionary leadership during the crisis that prevented catastrophic financial insolvency.
- 2What the intergovernmental panel desperately requires is binding commitment from participating nations.
Piège courant à éviter
Using what instead of that or who in an it-cleft, writing It was the battery what drained overnight.
Approfondir
La règle
Splitting a clause for focus
Cleft sentences partition a simple clause into two distinct grammatical units, creating a bipartite structure specifically engineered to control communicative emphasis and highlight contrastive focus.
It-clefts
In an It-cleft, the pattern is: It + be + focused element + that / who / which clause. The focused element can be almost any sentence component: the subject (It was Professor Higgins who designed the protocol), the direct object (It was the final draft that they rejected), or a prepositional adjunct of time or place (It was only in October that the treaty was signed).
Wh-clefts
In Wh-clefts (pseudo-clefts), a nominal relative clause introduced by what constitutes one part, followed by a form of be and the emphasized complement: What we must prioritize is fiscal responsibility. Inverted wh-clefts reverse this sequence for heightened climactic effect: Fiscal responsibility is what we must prioritize.
All-clefts and the reason why
Specialized variants include All-clefts (All I wanted was an honest answer) and formulaic phrase clefts (The reason why the experiment failed was improper calibration).
Anatomie de la phrase
Des phrases de cette leçon, découpées dans l'ordre qu'exige l'anglais.
SujetItVerbewasMise en reliefher visionary leadership during the crisisPropositionthat prevented catastrophic financial insolvency.
SujetItVerbewasMise en reliefin the historic city of KyotoPropositionthat the groundbreaking climate protocol was negotiated.
SujetItVerbewasMise en reliefthe chief engineer, not the operations manager,Propositionwho detected the hazardous coolant leak.
SujetWhat the intergovernmental panel desperately requiresVerbeisAttributbinding commitment from participating nations.
Guide visuel
How to read this C1 topic
At C1, think like an editor: precision, cohesion, stance, information flow, and controlled formality.
1. Track reference
Pronouns, substitution, and ellipsis must point to something recoverable.
I liked the first plan, but not the second.
2. Identify stance
Hedging and modality show how strongly the writer commits.
This may suggest a wider trend.
3. Shape the focus
Clefts, inversion, and nominalization decide what the reader notices first.
It was the timing that surprised us.
English word-order check
Use this path when a sentence feels grammatical but awkward.
- 1Find the subject and the finite verb.
- 2Keep the verb close to its direct object.
- 3Put manner before place before time when several adverbials come at the end.
- 4Move time to the front only when it helps the sentence flow.
Contrasts that often decide the answer
Event or background
Simple forms move events forward; continuous forms show an action in progress.
I left while she was talking.
Fact or stance
Modals, hedges, and reporting structures show how certain or responsible the speaker sounds.
This may indicate a problem.
Clause or compressed phrase
Advanced writing often compresses full clauses into participle, noun, or prepositional phrases.
Having reviewed the data, we revised the plan.
Exemples
- 1It was her visionary leadership during the crisis that prevented catastrophic financial insolvency.
- 2What the intergovernmental panel desperately requires is binding commitment from participating nations.
- 3It was only after the audit was published that the board acknowledged structural accounting deficits.
- 4Restoring public confidence in municipal institutions is what the new mayor intends to accomplish first.
- 5All the stranded passengers sought was transparent communication regarding their rescheduled flights.
- 6It was in the historic city of Kyoto that the groundbreaking climate protocol was negotiated.
- 7The reason why the aerospace component failed was micro-fracturing induced by thermal cycling.
- 8What surprised the architectural critics most was the minimalist simplicity of the interior pavilion.
- 9It was the chief engineer, not the operations manager, who detected the hazardous coolant leak.
Exceptions
In formal it-clefts with personal pronoun foci, subjective case pronouns require verb agreement matching the pronoun in the relative clause: It is I who am responsible, It is they who were summoned. In informal speech, objective case with third-person singular agreement is prevalent: It is me who is responsible.
Erreurs fréquentes
What in an it-cleft
Erreur
It was his arrogance what ruined him.
Correct
It was his arrogance that ruined him.
When in a formal it-cleft
Erreur
It was in July when the conference convened.
Correct
It was in July that the conference convened.
Récap
L'essentiel de la leçon sur une carte, avant de te tester.
À retenir
- Construct it-clefts to isolate and foreground subjects, direct objects, or circumstantial adjuncts within an introductory it-matrix.
- Formulate wh-clefts and inverted wh-clefts to focus on dynamic actions, communicative goals, or whole propositions.
- Employ all-clefts and introductory phrase clefts such as the reason why, the person who, and the place where to fine-tune focus.
Erreurs fréquentes
Erreur: It was his arrogance what ruined him.
Correct: It was his arrogance that ruined him.Erreur: It was in July when the conference convened.
Correct: It was in July that the conference convened.
Teste-toi
Take three core thematic statements and generate an it-cleft, a wh-cleft, and an inverted wh-cleft for each.
Points de grammaire associés
Poursuivez votre apprentissage avec d'autres notions de ce niveau.