3A Grammar Inversion and cleft sentences

• I can use inversion and cleft sentences to add emphasis.

Speeding in the sand: spot the emphasis

What type of text is it? Where might you read it?

Which sentence is the inverted one?

Two sentences, one meaning: what changes in the word order?

Which is an example of negative inversion?

Find another example in the text.

How are they different?

Match options a of sentences 1 and 2 from Exercise 3 with explanations a and b below.

Other ways to start a cleft sentence

• Cleft sentences start not only with It’s and What.
• They can also start with The (only) thing that, The day when, The place where, The reason why or The person/people who.

Practice: find, rewrite, emphasise

Study Watch Out! Then read the text again and find:

four more examples of cleft sentences.

two more examples of inversion.

Rewrite the sentences from Exercise 5 in normal word order.

Inversion: flip the subject and verb

We use inversion and cleft sentences for emphasis.

• In statements, the subject normally comes before the verb.
• Sometimes, after certain words or expressions, this word order is reversed and this is called inversion.
• We add the auxiliary do with simple tenses such as Present Simple and Past Simple.
• Inversion is used for dramatic emphasis and is most common in formal English.

Cleft sentences: what + be, it + be

• We can emphasise certain information to make it sound more memorable or dramatic, or to contrast it with a previous statement.
• The structures include what + be and it + be.

• What + be can also emphasise verbs by adding the auxiliary do.
• People began to scream.
• What people did was (to) begin to scream.