Cleft Sentences — Frasi Scisse

What Are Cleft Sentences?

A cleft sentence splits ("cleaves") a single clause into two parts to place strong emphasis on one element. In Italian, the most common pattern is È...che: a form of essere + the focused element + che + the rest of the sentence. The original sentence 'Marco ha vinto il premio' becomes 'È Marco che ha vinto il premio' (It is Marco who won the prize) — the focus shifts squarely onto Marco. Cleft sentences are a core feature of both spoken and written Italian and mark B2 communicative competence.

The Core Pattern: È...che

The verb essere agrees in number and sometimes tense with the focused element, not with the subject of the embedded clause. When the focus is plural, essere becomes sono: 'Sono i tuoi amici che ti hanno aiutato.' When the focus is in the past, essere can shift to the past: 'È stato Marco a vincere.' The connector che is invariable and introduces the rest of the proposition. The word order of the embedded clause remains the same as in the original sentence — only the focused element moves to the front.

• È Marco che ha vinto il premio. — It is Marco who won the prize.
• Sono i bambini che fanno rumore. — It is the children who are making noise.
• È lunedì che ci vediamo. — It is on Monday that we are meeting.
• È a Milano che lavora sua sorella. — It is in Milan that his sister works.
• È per te che l'ho fatto. — It is for you that I did it.
• È così che si fa il risotto. — This is how you make risotto.
• È stato nel 1861 che l'Italia si è unificata. — It was in 1861 that Italy was unified.

È...che vs. È...chi

The connector chi (= colui che, 'the one who') is used when the focus is a person functioning as the subject of the embedded verb. Chi implies a relative clause meaning 'the one who'. Compare: 'È Marco che ha vinto' (standard cleft — Marco is identified) vs. 'È Marco chi vince sempre' (less common; chi sounds formal and emphasises the habitual actor). In practice, che is preferred in modern Italian for both persons and things. Chi in clefts appears mainly in formal or literary registers and always refers to persons.

Pseudo-Cleft: Quello che...è

The pseudo-cleft places emphasis on a noun phrase or predicate by using a relative clause as the subject: 'Quello che mi sorprende è la sua calma.' (What surprises me is his calmness.) The structure is: quello che + full clause + essere + [focus]. The focused element follows essere and can be a noun, adjective, or infinitive phrase. Reverse pseudo-cleft inverts the order: '[Focus] + è quello che + clause' → 'La sua calma è quello che mi sorprende.' Both variants are common in formal prose and journalism.

• Quello che voglio è una risposta chiara. — What I want is a clear answer.
• Quello che mi preoccupa è il silenzio. — What worries me is the silence.
• Quello che ha detto il ministro è importante. — What the minister said is important.
• La cosa che non capisco è il suo comportamento. — The thing I don't understand is his behaviour.
• Ciò che serve è più tempo. — What is needed is more time.

È stato...a + Infinitive

This construction highlights the agent of an action: 'È stato Paolo a chiamare la polizia.' (It was Paolo who called the police.) It is especially common in spoken Italian and news reporting. Essere is conjugated and agrees with the agent; the infinitive follows a. This structure avoids the ambiguity of passive constructions and is stylistically preferred when a specific person is credited or blamed for an action. It cannot focus non-human subjects or non-volitional actions.

• È stata Maria a scoprire l'errore. — It was Maria who discovered the mistake.
• Sono stati i tecnici a riparare il guasto. — It was the technicians who repaired the fault.
• È stato il primo ministro ad annunciare la riforma. — It was the prime minister who announced the reform.
• È stato lui a tradirci. — It was him who betrayed us.
• Non è stato facile, ma è stata la squadra a vincere. — It wasn't easy, but it was the team that won.

Negative Cleft

Adding non before essere creates a negative cleft that corrects a false assumption: 'Non è Marco che ha sbagliato, è Luigi.' (It's not Marco who made the mistake, it's Luigi.) This structure is particularly common in spoken Italian when a speaker wants to contradict what was just said. The negative cleft always implies a contrast — the corrected element is typically stated in a follow-up clause.

Left Dislocation — A Related Structure

Left dislocation (dislocazione a sinistra) moves a topic to the front and resumes it with a pronoun: 'Il libro, l'ho letto ieri.' (The book, I read it yesterday.) This is different from a cleft because: (1) there is no splitting verb essere, (2) the dislocated element is resumed by a clitic pronoun, (3) the focus is on the topic rather than a specific new piece of information. Left dislocation marks the topic; cleft sentences mark the focus. Both are highly frequent in spoken Italian but left dislocation is more informal.

Register and Usage Notes

Cleft sentences appear across all registers. In spoken Italian, È...che and È stato...a + inf. are extremely frequent. In journalism and formal prose, the pseudo-cleft (quello che...è) and the negative cleft are preferred for stylistic clarity. Literary Italian may use chi instead of che. In academic writing, clefts are used to guide the reader's attention to key information. Over-use of clefts in writing is considered heavy style — vary with other focus strategies such as word-order inversion or focus particles (solo, proprio, anche).