C1 · grammar

Cleft Sentences Exercises (C1) — Free

Cleft sentences: 'It was ... that' and 'What I need is ...' for emphasis

A cleft sentence splits one idea into two parts to put emphasis on one of them. An it-cleft uses It + be + the emphasised part + that/who: It was my brother who broke the window (not me). It can emphasise a person, a thing, a time or a place, and 'that' works in all cases: It was in Paris that they met. A what-cleft puts the emphasised part at the end: What I need is a holiday. The verb after the what-clause is usually singular 'is' or 'was', even before a plural noun. When the emphasised part is an action, use 'do': What she did was (to) call the police; similarly, All I want to do is sleep. A common mistake is to drop 'it', as in 'Was my brother who broke the window'; English always needs a subject. Other useful patterns are 'The person who ...', 'The reason why ...' and 'It was only when ... that ...'. In this exercise, use the words in brackets to complete each gap.