​What is a cleft sentence?

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A cleft sentence is a sentence in which some part is moved from its normal position into a different place to give it more emphasis. For example, instead of saying:

Joe ate the cake.

​You would say:

​What Joe ate was the cake.

​Because there are two parts to the sentence it is called cleft (from the verb cleave) which means divided into two.

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​Cleft structures include the reason why, the thing that, the person/people who, the place where, the day when and what-clauses which are usually linked to the clause that we want to focus on with is or was.

​I enjoyed the brilliant music most of all in the Ballet Frankfurt performance.

• What I enjoyed most in the Ballet Frankfurt performance was the brilliant music.

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