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Cleft Sentences — Frasi Scisse·Word Order Emphasis — Alternatives to Cleft Sentences
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Rule reminder

Italian has several alternatives to cleft sentences for creating emphasis: 1) Marked word order (postposing subject: 'Ha telefonato Marco' instead of 'Marco ha telefonato'), 2) Left dislocation ('Marco, l'ho visto ieri'), 3) Right dislocation ('L'ho visto ieri, Marco'), 4) Focus movement (placing the focused element before the verb without 'che'), 5) Contrastive stress in speech. Understanding these alternatives helps learners choose the most appropriate strategy for context.

Word Order Emphasis — Alternatives to Cleft Sentences1 / 10

What does the postposed subject in 'Ha telefonato il direttore' (vs. 'Il direttore ha telefonato') achieve?

More in this section

→ Cleft Sentences in Formal and Journalistic Italian→ Quello che / Ciò che — Advanced Pseudo-Cleft→ Extended Pseudo-Clefts: la cosa che, l'unico che, il motivo per cui→ Italian Cleft vs. English 'it is...that/who'
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