Why is it that...?

[Silverobama]

I wonder if "Why is it that...." is a natural way to ask questions.

Is my sentence "Why is it that many people are afraid of spiders?" natural?

 

[dunchee]

Yes.

 

[tedmc]

I would write the question "Is my (the following) question natural?" first, follow by the question.

I think "it" could be omitted.

 

[teechar]

I would write the question "Is my the following question natural?" first, followed by the (actual) question.

I think "it" could be omitted.

No, because ..

Why is that many people are afraid of spiders?"

.. would be ungrammatical.

 

[Annabel Lee]

I wonder if "Why is it that...." is a natural way to ask questions.

Is my sentence "Why is it that many people are afraid of spiders?" natural?

I, too, answer in the affirmative, but why is that a natural way of asking questions?

Put more emphatically, why is it that this is a natural way of asking questions?

It is because the question structure relates to cleft sentences like this one that it is a natural way of asking questions.

We can put it this way:

Q: Why are people afraid of spiders?​

A: [People are afraid of spiders] because they are scary-looking and can bite.​

​

Or we can put it more emphatically:

​

Q: Why is it that people are afraid of spiders?​

A: [It is] because they are scary-looking and can bite [that people are afraid of spiders].​