🧵 Grammar · Clauses, Connectors & Sentence Style
Cleft Sentences (What I Loved Was…)
Move the spotlight exactly where you want it — It was the score that…, What I loved was… — the emphasis structures that lift review writing to C1.
Grammar › Clauses, Connectors & Sentence Style › Cleft Sentences
The rule in one sentenceA cleft sentence cuts one statement into two halves so the important part gets the spotlight — It was the ending that shocked me (it-cleft), What shocked me was the ending (wh-cleft), All I wanted was a happy ending (all-cleft). Same facts, controlled focus.
Why split a perfectly good sentence?
English word order is famously rigid — subject, verb, object — so you can’t shuffle words around for emphasis the way many languages do. Cleft sentences (from cleave, to split) are the workaround: they break one clause into two, and whatever you place in the spotlight position is what the listener hears as the point of the sentence.
An it-cleft puts the focus straight after it is / it was: It was The Fog of War, not any of his earlier films, that finally won Errol Morris an Academy Award. A wh-cleft saves the focus for the end: What made Gates of Heaven so unusual was its subject — pet cemeteries in California. And an all-cleft narrows everything down to a single thing: All Oliver wants in Oliver & Company is a home.
For learners who write film reviews, clefts are gold. “The soundtrack was good” is flat; What carries the whole film is its soundtrack tells your reader precisely where to look — and sounds like a critic wrote it.
🎬 Compare: “The soundtrack carries A Goofy Movie” vs “What carries A Goofy Movie is its soundtrack.”
The plain sentence reports; the cleft points. Both are correct — only one directs your reader’s attention.
How to build it
It-cleft
It was a small Alabama studio that gave the Muscle Shoals sound to the world.
Wh-cleft
What impressed critics most about The Fog of War was its unusually honest interview — the film went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Reversed wh-cleft
The 1967 Monterey festival is what Monterey Pop preserved for history.
All-cleft & the thing / the reason
All Oliver wants in Oliver & Company is a home. The thing that shocks first-time viewers of Titan A.E. is its opening — Earth is destroyed within minutes.
When to use which
It-cleft — contrast & correction
- Correcting a wrong idea: It was Errol Morris, not a major studio, who turned two pet cemeteries into Gates of Heaven.
- Highlighting a time or place: It was in 1967 that the festival captured in Monterey Pop took place.
- Formal writing and exams — the it-cleft reads slightly more written than spoken.
Wh-cleft — presenting your point
- Review openers: What I loved about The Aristocats was its jazzy Paris setting.
- Saving news for the end: the focus lands last, where English likes new information.
- Softer and more conversational than the it-cleft — ideal for spoken opinions.
Frames that signal a cleft
Learn these as ready-made frames — drop your own focus into the highlighted slot.
Visual guide
Teacher Teddy’s illustrated guide to this rule is being drawn — the full swipe-through infographic will appear here soon.
Common mistakes
❌ It was the score what made Titan A.E. memorable.
✅ It was the score that made Titan A.E. memorable.
After the focus of an it-cleft, use that (or who for people) — never what.
❌ What does make the Muscle Shoals sound special is the studio’s house band.
✅ What makes the Muscle Shoals sound special is the studio’s house band.
A wh-cleft is a statement, not a question — normal word order, no do-support.
❌ It were the interviews that made The Fog of War so powerful.
✅ It was the interviews that made The Fog of War so powerful.
The it of an it-cleft always takes singular be, even when the focus is plural.
❌ All what Oliver wants is a home of his own.
✅ All Oliver wants is a home of his own.
All is followed by a bare clause (or all that) — “all what” doesn’t exist in standard English.
Exceptions & tricky cases
1. The verb after the focus agrees with the focus. It is the songs that make A Goofy Movie so rewatchable — plural focus, plural verb. Only the first be is locked to singular.
2. Wh-clefts can’t spotlight people. For a person, switch to an it-cleft with who, or use the one who: The one who steals The Great Mouse Detective is Ratigan, its gloriously theatrical villain — not “What steals the film is Ratigan”.
3. You can cleft times and places too. It was only after the festival that Monterey Pop reached cinemas. Clefting an adverbial is one of the most elegant moves in formal writing — and a favourite in exam essays.
4. Don’t cleft everything. A cleft is a spotlight; a page of spotlights is just glare. One or two per paragraph is the ceiling — let plain sentences carry the rest.
Practice: choose the correct form
Eight quick questions — pick the version a careful writer would choose.
1. It was the long interview ___ made The Fog of War so gripping.
It-cleft → that/who after the focus, never “what”.
2. ___ makes the Muscle Shoals sound so famous is a small studio in an Alabama town.
Wh-clefts open with “What …” — the focus comes after “is”.
3. It ___ Errol Morris who turned two pet cemeteries into Gates of Heaven.
The “it” of an it-cleft always takes singular be.
4. All Oliver really wants in Oliver & Company ___ a home of his own.
The all-clause counts as one single thing → singular verb.
5. What surprised me about Titan A.E. ___ how dark the opening is — Earth is destroyed within minutes.
The two halves of a wh-cleft are joined by be.
6. It was at the 1967 festival ___ Monterey Pop was filmed.
A clefted adverbial (at the festival) links with “that”.
7. What I loved most about The Aristocats ___ the jazzy Paris setting.
The what-clause is treated as singular → was.
8. It’s the villain ___ makes The Great Mouse Detective such enormous fun.
The focus is a person (Ratigan!) → who.
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