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Clefts and Pseudo-Clefts

Pseudo-cleft sentences emphasize information after a what-clause connected to a form of to be. They take the form "What [subject] [verb]" is/was/etc + emphasized information. Cleft sentences also emphasize information after it + be, but transform a sentence by moving the emphasized part, such as the subject or time, to after it + be and connecting it with a relative pronoun. Both structures allow focusing on specific details within sentences.

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191 views2 pages

Clefts and Pseudo-Clefts

Pseudo-cleft sentences emphasize information after a what-clause connected to a form of to be. They take the form "What [subject] [verb]" is/was/etc + emphasized information. Cleft sentences also emphasize information after it + be, but transform a sentence by moving the emphasized part, such as the subject or time, to after it + be and connecting it with a relative pronoun. Both structures allow focusing on specific details within sentences.

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Pseudo-cleft sentences

WHAT-CLAUSE + BE + PHRASE

Pseudo-cleft sentences (also called wh-clefts) are similar in function to cleft sentences,
but they are formed with the pronoun what (= the thing(s) that/which). The emphasis in
a pseudo-cleft sentence is on the phrase after the what-clause + be:

What you need is a good sleep.


What I didn't like was the end of the movie.
What changed his mind was a book he'd read.

If we want to refer to a person, we say The person/people who/that:

The people who/that I met were members of the delegation.

If we want to emphasise an action, the verb after be usually takes the form that
corresponds to the form used in the what-clause:

What you should do is write a letter to the manager.


What I need to do is get some rest.
What they were doing was arguing about which train to take.
What I can do is call for a taxi.

In the following examples, the verb after be takes the form that the verb in the what-
clause is normally followed by:

What I want is to sleep.


What he can't stand is getting up early.

In the past simple and present perfect, we can use the following patterns:

What I did in the end was (to) go home.


What I have done is (to) write a letter to the editor.
Cleft sentences
clauses
IT + BE + PHRASE + DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE

Cleft sentences (also called it-clefts) result from changing the normal sentence pattern
to emphasise a particular piece of information. The emphasis in the resulting cleft
sentence is on the phrase after it + be.

Look at the following example:

János Irinyi invented the non-explosive match in 1836.

We can transform this sentence in different ways depending on which part of it we want
to bring into focus:

It was János Irinyi who/that invented the non-explosive match in 1836.


It was the non-explosive match which/that/(-) János Irinyi invented in 1836.
It was 1836 when János Irinyi invented the non-explosive match.

In the clauses that follow it + be + phrase, we can use the same relative pronouns (who,
whom, whose, which, that) and relative adverbs (where, when, why) that we normally
use in defining relative clauses.

However, if we bring a whole adverbial phrase into focus, we use that:

It was in 1836 that János Irinyi invented the non-explosive match.

If we use a personal pronoun after it + be, it will be in the object form:

It was him who invented the non-explosive match in 1836.

It is also possible to expand the phrase in focus with a non-defining relative clause:

It was János Irinyi, who was a Hungarian chemist, that invented the non-explosive
match in 1836.

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