Cleft Sentences: *It is / What*
Cleft sentences split a simple sentence into two clauses to put emphatic focus on one element. It-clefts highlight a subject, object, or time element (It was the CEO who announced the merger, It was last Tuesday that the merger was announced). What-clefts highlight an entire idea or action (What we need is better communication, What surprised everyone was the speed of the decision). A third type — what … was (to) + infinitive — emphasises an action (What she did was (to) resign without notice). The function is contrast: cleft sentences highlight one element against an alternative, often unstated. The recurring trap: don’t insert an extra subject pronoun (It was the manager who he approved the decision).
This worksheet drills B2–C1 cleft sentences through transformation tasks and contextual analysis.
Worksheet preview
What’s inside:
- Grammar Box with all three cleft types (it-cleft, what-cleft, what-was-to-infinitive) and the focus-element table
- Transformation: rewrite ten neutral sentences as cleft sentences to emphasise the bolded element
- Identification: spot the focus element and the alternative it’s contrasted against in five extended examples
- Production: rewrite a paragraph using cleft sentences for emphasis in three strategic places
- Full Answer Key plus Teacher Notes on the extra-subject error and the difference between cleft and simple emphasis
Common mistakes addressed: extra subject pronoun (It was the manager who he approved the decision), missing who/that (It was the CEO announced the merger), and using cleft sentences where simple emphasis would be more natural (over-cleft writing).
For: Adult and teenage learners (14+) at CEFR B2–C1, in upper-intermediate and advanced classes, 1:1 lessons, or self-study. Cleft sentences are a Writing-band marker in Cambridge B2 First (FCE) and C1 Advanced (CAE) — particularly in opinion essays and report tasks. Part of the Advanced Grammar collection — the natural sibling is Inversion: Formal and Emphatic, which covers the parallel C1 emphasis-by-structure technique.
