[Grammar] Paris is the city where I feel most at home in.

[nininaz]

Hello all,

Do these sentences convert correctly to cleft-sentences?

I feel most at home in Paris.

Paris is the city where I feel most at home in.
Paris is the city that I feel most at home in.
Paris is the city in which I feel most at home.


We are going to Spain this year.

Spain is the country/the place where we are going this year.
Spain is the country/the place that we are going to this year.
Spain is the country/the place to which we are going this year.
Spain is the country/the place which we are going to this year.

 

[GoesStation]

Every sentence but the one in the thread's title is correct. The title sentence will be okay if you remove in.

Not knowing what a cleft sentence is, I don't know whether these are correct examples of them.

 

[teechar]

Every sentence but the one in the thread's title is correct.

But the first sentence is exactly the same as that in the title! :shock:

 

[GoesStation]

But the first sentence is exactly the same as that in the title! :shock:

Let me rephrase that. Every sentence, except the one which also serves as the thread's title, is correct.

Better?

 

[PaulMatthews]

They are grammatically okay, other than the first example, which does not require the preposition "in".

But in my experience these are not clefts. Superficially, they look like reversed pseudo-clefts, but they have conventional relative clauses, whereas the clefts have fused relative clauses.

Reversed pseudo-clefts would be "Paris is where I feel most at home" / "Spain is where we are going this year.

 

[nininaz]

They are grammatically okay, other than the first example, which does not require the preposition "in".

But in my experience these are not clefts. Superficially, they look like reversed pseudo-clefts, but they have conventional relative clauses, whereas the clefts have fused relative clauses.

Reversed pseudo-clefts would be "Paris is where I feel most at home" / "Spain is where we are going this year.

Thanks teacher.
You are right, but in Michael Swan book, Practical English Usage, this structure called 'cleft-sentences'.


As I have learned, the sentence "It is Paris where I am going this year." is considered as a cleft-sentence.

 

[kilroy65]

As I have learned, the sentence "It is Paris where I am going this year" is considered as a cleft-sentence.

This is correct. You might be interested in reading the following explanation:

We use cleft sentences, especially in speaking, to connect what is already understood to what is new to the listener. In a cleft sentence, a single message is divided (cleft) into two clauses. This allows us to focus on the new information.

A: Sharon’s car got broken into yesterday, did it?
B: No. It was Nina’s car that got broken into!
Focus (new information): it was Nina’s car
Understood already (old information): a car got broken into

A: You’ve met my mother, haven’t you?
B: No, it was your sister (that) I met!
Focus (new information): it was your sister
Understood already (old information): I met someone in your family

Is it August that you are going on holiday?
Focus (new information): the month August
Understood already (old information): you are going on holiday

(English Grammar Today, Cambridge University Press)

 

[PaulMatthews]

Thanks teacher.
You are right, but in Michael Swan book, Practical English Usage, this structure called 'cleft-sentences'.
As I have learned, the sentence "It is Paris where I am going this year." is considered as a cleft-sentence.

That's a different construction: "It is Paris where I am going this year" is an it-cleft, where the backgrounded element is a relative clause.

You could also say "Where I am going this year is Paris" (pseudo-cleft) or "Paris is where I am going this year" (reversed pseudo-cleft).

Note that the backgrounded element in a pseudo-cleft is a "fused" relative construction in which fused "there" means "the place where/to which".

Your original examples are neither it-clefts nor pseudo clefts, not genuine clefts at all.

 

[nininaz]

Note that the backgrounded element in a pseudo-cleft is a "fused" relative construction in which fused "there" means "the place where/to which".

I can't figure out above explanation, but I now know what cleft, it-cleft, all-cleft, pseudo and reverse-pseudo cleft mean.

Your original examples are neither it-clefts nor pseudo clefts, not genuine clefts at all.

What this type of sentence is called? I think we can just consider it as 'complex sentences'. However, Michael Swan called them cleft sentences.

Could you please take a look at Michael Swan book?

 

[GoesStation]

Note that Swan does not hyphenate cleft sentence.

 

[PaulMatthews]

I can't figure out above explanation, but I now know what cleft, it-cleft, all-cleft, pseudo and reverse-pseudo cleft mean.

What this type of sentence is called? I think we can just consider it as 'complex sentences'. However, Michael Swan called them cleft sentences.

Could you please take a look at Michael Swan book?
View attachment 2560View attachment 2561

I don't know why Swan chooses to call some of his examples clefts. I suspect it's because his grammar is not as exacting as some. Interestingly, he freely admits he has no qualifications for the work he does; make what you will of that!

Fused relatives are constructions like "Paris is where I'm going", which stands in contrast to the non-fused "Paris is the place where I'm going". I covered that point in my previous reply.