Cleft sentences are often used to focus attention on the key message of a sentence.
In cleft sentences, the message of the sentence is divided into two parts. We may do this to emphasise. Cleft means to divide or split.
to focus on an action we use ‘what’
What I do when I feel tired at work is drink coffee.
What the fuss is about is that the GDP of this country is going down very quickly.
we can use ‘it’ to draw focus to particular information
It was Sunday that everything changed.
It was me who said that.
It was the closure of the company that created mass unemployment locally.
We use cleft clauses to say things in different ways
We might say –
John Smith broke the record for swimming in the sea. (most common)
But, you could also say:
It was John Smith who broke the record for swimming in the sea.
The record for swimming in the sea was broken by John Smith.
It was in the sea that John Smith broke the record for swimming in the sea. (least popular – maybe you would use this to really impress a listener, maybe you are writing poetry?)
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To summarise, whilst all these sentences say the same thing, the order of the words impacts the focus of the listener, this may be done to impress someone or to evoke emotion of some kind. Whilst it is not necessary to speak like this every day, there are times when it will become useful. If we are going to be fluent, we need to be able to use and understand this way of communicating.
Perhaps communicating like this interests you?
Perhaps it is of interest to you to communicate like this?
Can you feel the difference?
Would you like to try and create some sentences saying the same thing but in different ways?