2. What are they used for?
• When we want to focus attention on
or emphasize one part of a sentence,
we can do this by adding certain
words or phrases to the beginning of
a sentence. This is sometimes called
‘cleft sentence’
3. Types of Cleft sentences
•1. beginning with :What or All
▫ What= the thing; All =the only thing
+ clause `be, and then the emphatic
sentence.
▫ E.g.: What I need is a new car.
▫ All I want is to travel
4. 2. beginning with What happens is…/
What happened was….
▫ Used to emphasize an event/ action
▫ E.g.: What happened was ( that) we
missed our flight.
5. 3. beginning with
The person who…, the place where…,
• The person who…,
• The place where…,
• The first/last time…,
• The resason why…,
▫ E.g.: The reason why I bought it was because it
was cheap.
+ clause+
beemphasized
part of the
sentence at the
end.
6. 4. Beginning with It
▫It is / was+ the emphasized part
of the sentence + a relative
clause
• E.g. It was last Friday when we had the
meeting
7. Now it’s your turn to give emphasis
• EXERCISE
• Rewrite the sentences with the bold word.
▫ 1. We stopped in an absolutely beautiful place for
lunch
PLACE
▫ ______________was absolutelly beautiful.
8. ▫ 2. We got stuck in an enormous traffic jam.
HAPPENED
_____________we got stuck in an enormous traffic
jam.
9. • They didn’t apologize for arriving late, which
really annoyed me.
▫ WHAT
▫ _______________they didn’t apologize for
arriving late
10. • A girl from my town won the silver medal.
▫ IT
▫ ___________________won the silver medal
11. • I only said that I didn’t like her dress
▫ ALL
▫ _________________that I didn’t like her dress
12. • I like my Aunt Emily best of all my relatives
▫ PERSON
▫ _________________is my Aunt Emily.
13. • You pick up your tickets at the box office.
▫ HAPPENS
▫ __________________you pick up your tickets
at the box office
14. • Right now you need to sit down and put your
feet up.
▫ WHAT
▫ _________________to sit down and put your
feet up
15. • I first met Serena at a conference in Berlin.
▫ TIME
▫ ________________at a conference in Berlin.
16. RESOURCES
• Adapted from: New English File Advanced
• Extra materials:
• http://es.scribd.com/doc/52432150/CLEFT-
SENTENCES
• The teacher’s blog
▫ http://cursodeingles-
elena.blogspot.com.es/2013/10/b2-advanced-2-
grammar-unit-1b-cleft.html
