Syntax & Word Order
Cleft Sentence
Splitting a simple sentence in two to spotlight one part: 'It was Ishmael who survived' instead of 'Ishmael survived.' Grammar's way of stressing a word without italics.
"It was the best butter." → "It was a bright cold day in April…" — Orwell's it-frame
Don't confuse it with. A pseudo-cleft uses 'what' ('What he wanted was peace'); both are focus machines, differing in which slot gets the spotlight.
In the Reader — 5 excerpts
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good
It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With
It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With
It is the Devil who holds the strings that move us!
One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. No biological, psychological, or economic fate determines the figure that the human female presents in society; it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature, intermediate between male and eunuch, which is described as feminine.
Travels with
Devices that share a passage with cleft sentence most often — company reveals character.
The rest of the family
Hyperbaton Anastrophe Periodic Sentence Cumulative (Loose) Sentence Parataxis Parenthesis Apposition / Appositive Zeugma Hendiadys Pleonasm Enumeration / Accumulatio Passive Voice