Cleft sentences with What

Cleft sentences with What

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.

Cleft sentences are used in spoken and written English, but they are more common in written English. 

Cleft sentences help us focus on a certain part of a sentence to add emphasis to what we want to say. We use cleft sentences to to connect what is already understood to what is new to the listener. Cleft sentences let us focus on the new information.  

They can use different WH clauses; Today, we are going to use cleft sentences with WHAT.

In WH cleft sentences, the understood (old) information is at the beginning of the sentence rather than the end of the sentence. The focus (new information) is at the end of the sentence.

  

Example: 

– What do you need?

– What I need is something to drink.

In the second sentence, the focus is on the new information: I need something to drink.

The understood information (old information) is at the beginning: I need something.

Some more examples:

- What I need now is a cup of coffee.
 
-What's really important to me is my family. 

Note: Observa que en esos ejemplos tenemos 2 formas de comenzar, si empiezas con what es porque vas a mencionar el subject pronoun (la persona) sobre la que es la oración, además que después del sujeto se menciona un verbo.

What + sentence + be + emphasised information

What I love the most is a chilled white wine

What my Mum never buys is red meat

What we often do in autumn is go to the park

Si empiezas con What's es porque usualmente vas a mencionar un adjetivo para describir la oración. 


More examples:


What's amazing is the way he talks in public. 
What's necessary is to find a new plan.
What's important to me is love . 

It is sometimes very effective to use all instead of what in a cleft structure if you want to focus on one particular thing and nothing else:

What I want for Christmas is you = All I want for Christmas is you

All I need is a coffee to wake up

All you should do is keep recycling vocabulary

All we want is to learn phrasal verbs

As you could see, Cleft sentences are considered advanced English, they are very common to emphasize something important. 

Recuerda:

" El Inglés, tú y yo podemos ser amigos".

See you!!