Cleft sentences
- Cleft sentences are used to help us focus on a particular part of the sentence and to emphasise what we want to say by introducing it.
- Cleft means divided. In a cleft sentence, the information is divided in two. It is called ‘cleft’ sentence because there are two parts to the sentence.
- We use cleft sentences in order to emphasize certain pieces of information.
- We join the most important piece of information to a relative clause, often with
who, where, which or that.
We can start cleft sentences with the following phrases, among others:
The thing that …
The person who …
The time when …
The place where …
The way in which ...
When we begin a cleft sentence with It, the relative clause usually begins with that.
- Taha Hussein is especially famous for his work in literature.
It is for his work in literature that Taha Hussein is especially famous.
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Example:
- The head teacher took our class to the museum on Thursday.
The head teacher was the person who took our class to the museum on Thursday.
The person who took our class to the museum on Thursday was the head teacher.
The place where the head teacher took us on Thursday was the museum.
The day when the head teacher took us to the museum was Thursday.
It was the head teacher that took us to the museum on Thursday.
It was on Thursday that the head teacher took us to the museum.
It was to the museum that the head teacher took us on Thursday.
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