It-Cleft Sentences Exercises

An it-cleft sentence is a way to put the spotlight on one part of a sentence. Instead of saying “Maria broke the window”, you can say “It was Maria who broke the window”. The meaning is the same, but the second version stresses who did it. This page explains the pattern and gives exercises with answers.

What Is an It-Cleft Sentence?

“Cleft” means split. An it-cleft takes one simple sentence and splits it into two parts: a short main clause beginning with it and a form of be, and a second clause (usually a relative clause) that contains the rest of the information.

Writers and speakers use it-clefts to:

• Emphasize the most important or new piece of information
• Correct or contrast something (“It wasn’t Tom, it was Ben”)
• Add emphasis in writing, where you cannot use your voice for stress

The Basic Pattern

It + be + focused element + that/who clause

The focused element can be a noun phrase, a pronoun, an adverbial of time or place, or a prepositional phrase. The verb be can be in any tense you need (is, was, will be, has been).

When the focus is a person, you can use who or that. For things, places and times, that is the usual choice. In informal speech, that or who is often left out when it would be the object of the clause, as in “It was your sister I met”.

Worked Examples

Start with: Maria broke the window yesterday.

Notice that only the first part changes. The remaining words stay in the same order inside the that/who clause.

Two more points:

• The verb be after it is usually singular, even when the focus is plural: “It was the children who made the noise.”
• In questions, it and be swap places: “Was it Maria who broke the window?”

Exercise 1: Rewrite with the Focus Shown

Rewrite each sentence as an it-cleft, using the part in brackets as the focus.

1. Tom lost his keys at the station. (Tom)
2. Tom lost his keys at the station. (his keys)
3. Tom lost his keys at the station. (at the station)
4. We met in Paris in 2019. (in Paris)
5. The noise annoyed me, not the heat. (the noise)

Exercise 2: Choose Who or That

Fill the gap with who or that. Both may be possible in some items.

1. It was my neighbor ______ called the police.
2. It is the final chapter ______ makes the story memorable.
3. It was on a rainy Tuesday ______ they arrived.
4. It was the students ______ organized the event.

Exercise 3: Find the Error

Each sentence has one error. Correct it.

1. It was in 2019 when we met. (Make it a standard it-cleft.)
2. It were the children who made the noise.
3. It was Maria who broke it the window.
4. Is it August that you are going on holiday? (Is this sentence correct?)

Answers

Exercise 1

1. It was Tom who lost his keys at the station.
2. It was his keys that Tom lost at the station.
3. It was at the station that Tom lost his keys.
4. It was in Paris that we met in 2019.
5. It was the noise, not the heat, that annoyed me.

Exercise 2

1. who or that (both are fine for a person; who is a little more common in careful writing).
2. that, because the focus is a thing.
3. that, because the focus is a time expression.
4. who or that.

Exercise 3

1. It was in 2019 that we met. Spoken English sometimes uses when in this position, but that is the standard it-cleft form.
2. It was the children who made the noise. It stays singular with was.
3. It was Maria who broke the window. The original repeats the object (it and the window).
4. This sentence is correct. It is a question form of an it-cleft that checks the focus (August).

Other Ways to Add Emphasis

An it-cleft is only one option. Another is the wh-cleft, as in “What I need is a rest” or “What happened was that the bus broke down”. Passive voice and fronting can also shift the focus; writers sometimes reorder a sentence on purpose for effect, as in hyperbaton examples. To see how punctuation can reinforce emphasis in a sentence, read about interrupting words and phrases. If you want broader practice with fixing sentences, return to our sentence correction exercises.