🔦 Grammar B2-29: Emphasis: cleft sentences

Speech can lean on a word; a page cannot. Cleft sentences are how a writer puts one element in the spotlight, and this lesson teaches both families from the reader's side rather than the grammar's. Family one, the wh-cleft: what we published was a set of dates; what she did was rewrite it; all we ask for is an answer; the reason we left was that the hall was cold — with the pivot verb agreeing with whatever follows it. Family two, the it-cleft: it was Solenne who sent the email; it was on Monday that she sent it; it wasn't until Tuesday that anyone replied — it plus be plus the spotlight plus the compulsory joint who or that. The heart of the material is a single neutral sentence re-clefted three ways to answer three different unspoken objections, followed by the harder half of the skill: recognising the paragraphs where nothing is in dispute and the plain sentence wins. Thirty-one multiple-choice items, a twelve-chip family sorter, six corrections and a tappable editorial rebuttal in which every cleft answers a named accusation.