Cleft sentences are used to emphasize or focus attention on part of a sentence. There are several types of cleft sentences: 1) Beginning with "what" or "all" to emphasize a thing or only thing 2) Beginning with "what happens is" or "what happened was" to emphasize an event 3) Beginning with "the person who", "the place where", "the first/last time", or "the reason why" 4) Beginning with "it is/was" followed by a relative clause The document provides examples of each type and exercises rewriting sentences using cleft structures to shift emphasis.

1. CLEFT SENTENCES
ADVANCED 2

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