Don't you like vegetables? – No, I like most of them.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 563.

It-clefts

Cleft sentences

LANGUAGE FOCUS

When we want to focus attention on (or emphasize) one part of sentence, we can use special structures called cleft sentence. In cleft (‘divided') sentence, we divide the sentence into two parts and focus attention on one part. This part is usually stressed in speech. Some cleft sentences begin it and are called it-clefts. Others begin with what and are called wh-clefts.

1. Martin + ate your pizza. → It was Martin who ate your pizza.

Martin + ate your pizza. → It was your pizza that Martin ate.

2. Anna really likes +chocolate ice cream. → What Anna really likes the chocolate ice cream.

We usually form it- clefts with it+be+an emphasized part + a relative clause beginning with who, that, or no relative pronoun.

3. Someone said Ali phoned earlier. (Ali didn't phone. Alex phoned.) → No. it wasn't Ali who phoned. It was Alex.

4. I'm not interested in anyone else. ( I love you!) → It's you that I love!

( I hate onions.) → It's onions I hate.

We usually use it – clefts when we want to focus attention on a noun or pronoun, but we can also focus on other parts of a sentence such as an adverb or an adverbial clause.

6. You were supposed to be here yesterday. → It was yesterday that you were supposed to be here.

7. Things got worse after Elaine left. → It was after Elaine left that things got worse.