Cleft Sentences

Cleft Sentences

Multiple Choice

which of these options do you associate the word Cleft (past of cleave)

• Divided

• Mixed

• Merged

Fill in the Blank

It ______ my high school teacher who inspired me to become a writer.

Cleft sentences are a way to emphasize or highlight a particular part of a sentence. They are often used to add emphasis or provide additional information about a specific element. In a cleft sentence, the sentence is split into two parts, with the focus or emphasized element placed at the beginning.

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So, What are Cleft Sentences?

Multiple Choice

______ who invited me to the party yesterday.

• did you

• were you

• It was you

• Could be you

Multiple Choice

______ annoys me most about our neighbors is the noise they make.

• Who

• What

• did

• you

Here is a simple sentence with no particular emphasis.

You invited me to the party yesterday.

Cleft Sentences With it

We can emphasize different elements of this sentence by 'fronting' them, that is, moving them to the front of the sentence after it + be.

It was you who invited me to the party yesterday.
Emphasis: you (not another person)

It was yesterday that you invited me to the party.
Emphasis: yesterday (not another time)

It was the party that you invited me to yesterday.
Emphasis: the party (not another event)

Fill in the Blank

It _____ on Monday that I won the lottery.

Multiple Choice

-It was the delicious cake that Mary _____

-Of course, the taste is different when comes straight from the oven

• Bought

• Made

• Maked

• Baked

What clauses + be are common in spoken English. They emphasize the part of the sentence that is outside the what clause.

Cleft Sentences With What

What I like best about going to the cinema is talking about the film afterwards.
What drives me up the wall is people talking during the film. 
What I found was that the films my friends liked were very different from the ones I liked.

This kind of cleft sentence can also begin with where, why, who, how, etc.

How the kids did this is still unclear to me. 

We can also put the what clause at the end of the sentence.

The game we played was what I liked the most.

Multiple Choice

What I really wanted to study at university ____ art.

• is

• were

• was

• are

Multiple Choice

Identify the emphasized element in the following cleft sentence: It was the dog that dug up the garden.

• it

• the dog

• dug up

• garden

Multiple Choice

Choose the correct cleft sentence structure:

• John was the one who ate the pizza.

• John ate the pizza.

• The pizza was eaten by John.

• It was John that ate the pizza.

Multiple Choice

Select the cleft sentence that emphasizes the place:

• It was in the park where we had a picnic.

• We had a picnic in the park.

• We had a picnic where it was in the park.

• The park is where we had a picnic.

Multiple Choice

Choose the cleft sentence that emphasizes the time:

• I met her yesterday.

• 
  I met her at yesterday.

• It was yesterday that I met her.

• Yesterday, I met her.

Multiple Choice

Identify the cleft sentence that emphasizes the object:

• I read the book.

• It was the book that I read.

• The book I read.

• The book was read by me.