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Advanced 📝 Grammar
Cleft sentences & emphasis
Emphasise the key part of a sentence with It was… that… and What I need is…
1Learn
Goal: Emphasise the key part of a sentence with It was… that… and What I need is…
Cleft sentences split one sentence into two to highlight one part. It-cleft: “It was Anu who called” (not someone else). What-cleft: “What I need is a break” (not anything else). Also: “The reason I left was…”, “All I want is…”, “The thing is…”. These are powerful in presentations and disagreements.
2Examples
It was my brother who paid.Emphasis on my brother
What matters is the result.
All I want is a quiet weekend.
The reason we’re late is the traffic.
It’s the customer service that needs fixing.
What I love about Kerala is the food.
3Common mistakes
It was in Kochi where I met him.
It was in Kochi that I met him.
What I need is I need sleep.
What I need is sleep.
4Practice quiz
Question 1 of 5Multiple choice
___ my sister who told me.
5Speaking challenge
Speaking challenge
Present a problem at work or college in 1 minute. Use ‘The thing is…’, ‘What we need is…’ and ‘It’s … that…’.
0:30
Say it out loud. Nobody is listening — that’s the point. Mistakes are allowed.