Question 1

What is an all-cleft sentence?

Accepted Answer

An all-cleft sentence uses "all" at the beginning to express that only one thing is involved: "All I need is five more minutes." It emphasises simplicity or limitation — the speaker is saying "nothing else, just this." The structure works in two main ways: "All + subject + verb + is/was + noun" for desires and needs ("All she wanted was honesty"), and "All + subject + did + was + base verb" for actions ("All he did was laugh"). All-clefts are very common in everyday English and add emotional weight to statements. They make needs sound modest and actions sound effortless or insignificant.

Question 2

What verb form comes after "All I did was"?

Accepted Answer

After "All + subject + did + was," use the bare infinitive (base form without "to"): "All I did was ask a simple question" — not "asked." The bare infinitive is the standard form and sounds most natural. However, the to-infinitive is also grammatically acceptable: "All she did was to apologise." Both forms are correct, but the bare infinitive is far more common in spoken English and is what Cambridge examiners typically expect. Do not use the past tense form after "was": "All he did was walked away" is always incorrect — say "All he did was walk away."

Question 3

How is an all-cleft different from a standard wh-cleft?

Accepted Answer

An all-cleft and a wh-cleft look similar but carry different meanings. "What I want is a holiday" (wh-cleft) simply highlights "a holiday" as the focus — it does not suggest limitation. "All I want is a holiday" (all-cleft) emphasises that this is the ONLY thing — nothing else. The word "all" adds a sense of modesty, simplicity, or exclusivity that "what" does not. You can often transform between the two: "What he did was complain" and "All he did was complain" — but the second version sounds more dismissive or minimising. Choose wh-clefts for neutral emphasis and all-clefts when you want to stress that something is the sole focus.

All-Cleft Exercises

Quick Rule

All 20 questions

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Cleft Sentences Error Correction

It-Cleft: Subject Focus

Wh-Clefts

-ed vs -ing Adjectives

Conditionals

Present Perfect