Clefts & Inversion

Article excerpt · target grammar marked

It was Marley who persuaded them both to attend the One Love Peace Concert, and it was Marley who coaxed them onto the stage. What the concert did achieve, arguably, was to demonstrate what Marley had always believed.

Grammar Reference · Clefts & Inversion

It-cleft

Isolates one element for emphasis. It was the gang leaders who initiated the truce. Common in spoken and written emphasis.

Wh-cleft

Fronts a noun clause as subject. What Marley believed was that music could start conversations. Formal and analytical register.

Inversion: negative

Auxiliary inverts after negative fronted adverb. Rarely had a gesture carried such weight. Formal; often literary.

Inversion: Only +

Only + time phrase triggers inversion. Only at the end did he call them on stage. Marks delayed or crucial information.

01Exercise 1 — Form · Write the Correct Form

Clefts & Inversion

1.It was the audience witnessed the historic handshake.

2. the concert demonstrated was that music could open political dialogue.

3.Rarely a single concert attracted so much global attention.

4.Only after the concert the two leaders speak publicly about peace.

5.It was the gang leaders, not the politicians, brokered the original truce.

6. surprised journalists was the spontaneity of the moment on stage.

02Exercise 2 — Transform

rewrite with the new structure

1.Nobody had captured that political tension so visibly before.

2.The spontaneity of the gesture surprised everyone most.

3.Marley organised the final moment — not the event producers.

4.He walked offstage only after the two men shook hands.

03Exercise 3 — About You

in your notebook

Personalise: complete five sentences about yourself using the target grammar.

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