Tóm tắt

Cleft sentences = tách câu để đặt trọng tâm thông tin vào một phần cụ thể.

Loại Cấu trúc Ví dụ
It-cleft It is/was + X + that/who... It was the cost that deterred him.
Wh-cleft What/Where/Why... + V + is/was + X What we need is more funding.
All-cleft All + S + V + is/was All she wanted was a fair chance.

Tại sao quan trọng

  • Kiểm soát information focus: đặt thông tin quan trọng vào đúng vị trí
  • Tránh lặp lại cấu trúc câu đơn điệu: thay thế cho câu subject-verb thông thường
  • IELTS Writing Task 2: biểu hiện Grammatical Range cao khi dùng đúng
  • Phân tích: làm rõ nguyên nhân, điều kiện, yếu tố cụ thể một cách nhấn mạnh

It-Cleft — Nhấn mạnh bằng "It is/was"

Cấu trúc

It + is/was + [phần được nhấn mạnh] + that/who + [phần còn lại của câu]

Quy tắc dùng "that" hay "who"

  • who → nhấn mạnh người (subject)
  • that → nhấn mạnh mọi thứ khác (thing, time, place, reason...)

Ví dụ chi tiết

Câu gốc: The government introduced this policy in 2010.

Nhấn mạnh vào Cleft sentence
Chủ thể (người) It was the government who introduced this policy in 2010.
Tân ngữ (vật) It was this policy that the government introduced in 2010.
Thời gian It was in 2010 that the government introduced this policy.

Thêm ví dụ:

  • It is poverty that drives many people to crime. (nghèo đói mới là nguyên nhân, không phải thứ khác)
  • It was the lack of regulation that caused the financial crisis.
  • It is education that offers the most sustainable solution.
  • It was not money but passion that motivated her.
  • It is precisely this attitude that needs to change.

Lưu ý về thì của "it is/was"

  • It is → nhấn mạnh điều liên quan đến hiện tại hoặc sự thật chung

  • It was → nhấn mạnh điều đã xảy ra trong quá khứ

  • It is the quality of education that matters most. (sự thật chung)

  • It was the invention of the internet that changed communication. (sự kiện quá khứ)

Wh-Cleft (Pseudo-cleft) — Nhấn mạnh bằng mệnh đề What

Cấu trúc phổ biến nhất

What + Subject + verb + is/was + [phần được nhấn mạnh]

Ví dụ

  • What we need is more investment in education.
  • What surprises me is the lack of public awareness.
  • What the government should do is introduce stricter regulations.
  • What concerns many scientists is the rate of deforestation.
  • What this study shows is that diet significantly affects health.

Đảo chiều Wh-Cleft (Reversed pseudo-cleft)

[Phần được nhấn mạnh] + is/was + what + Subject + verb
  • More investment in education is what we need.
  • Stricter regulations is what the situation demands.
  • Greater awareness is what is lacking.

Các biến thể khác

Where-cleft, Why-cleft, When-cleft:

  • Where things often go wrong is in the implementation stage.
  • Why this matters is that thousands of lives are at stake.
  • When the problem became serious was after 2010.

All-Cleft — Nhấn mạnh bằng "All"

Cấu trúc

All + Subject + verb (need/want/have to...) + is/was + noun phrase
All + Subject + verb + is/was + to-infinitive

Nghĩa hàm ý: "Chỉ cần / duy nhất điều này":

  • All I need is more time.
  • All she wanted was a fair chance.
  • All the policy achieved was to increase public frustration.
  • All we can do is wait and see.

So sánh: Câu thường vs Cleft sentence

Câu thường Cleft sentence Nhấn mạnh
The internet changed communication. It was the internet that changed communication. Internet (không phải thứ khác)
We need more funding. What we need is more funding. More funding (không phải ít hơn, không phải thứ khác)
The cost deterred investors. It was the cost that deterred investors. Chi phí (không phải rủi ro hay gì khác)
Poor planning caused the failure. What caused the failure was poor planning. Kế hoạch kém (không phải yếu tố khác)

Lỗi thường gặp

Lỗi 1: Dùng "which" thay "that" trong it-cleft

  • ❌ It is education which holds the key.
  • ✅ It is education that holds the key. (it-cleft dùng "that", không phải "which")

Lỗi 2: Sai thì của "is/was" trong wh-cleft

  • ❌ What we needed is better communication.
  • ✅ What we needed was better communication. (quá khứ → was)
  • ✅ What we need is better communication. (hiện tại → is)

Lỗi 3: Nhầm cấu trúc it-cleft và relative clause

  • It-cleft: It is poverty that causes crime. (nhấn mạnh "poverty")
  • Relative: Poverty, which causes crime, must be addressed. (mệnh đề quan hệ bổ sung thêm thông tin)

Lỗi 4: Thiếu chủ ngữ trong wh-cleft

  • ❌ What need is more investment.
  • ✅ What we need is more investment.
  • ❌ What is important is that act quickly.
  • ✅ What is important is that we act quickly.

Lỗi 5: Dùng it-cleft không phù hợp ngữ cảnh

It-cleft phù hợp nhất khi người đọc đã biết phần còn lại của câu và bạn đang làm rõ ai/cái gì là tác nhân. Tránh dùng khi không có ngữ cảnh tương phản:

  • ❌ It is a book that I am reading. (không có gì để nhấn mạnh tương phản)
  • ✅ It is this particular book that I have been recommending to everyone.

Ứng dụng trong IELTS

Writing Task 2 — Nhấn mạnh luận điểm:

  • "It is government intervention, not individual choice, that offers the most effective solution to public health crises."
  • "What developing nations need most is not aid but fair trade agreements."
  • "It is at the community level that real social change begins."
  • "What has changed most dramatically in the past century is the pace of technological development."
  • "All the evidence suggests that early intervention yields the best outcomes."

Writing Task 2 — Phản bác luận điểm:

  • "It is not technology itself that is harmful, but the way it is used."
  • "What critics fail to acknowledge is the significant economic benefits of globalisation."
  • "It is the lack of funding, rather than political will, that hampers progress."

Speaking Part 3 — Nhấn mạnh quan điểm:

  • "What really concerns me is the speed at which we're consuming natural resources."
  • "It's often the poorest communities that suffer most from environmental damage."
  • "What I find most interesting about this issue is how opinions differ across generations."

Bài tập luyện

Viết lại dùng It-cleft, nhấn mạnh phần in đậm

  1. Technology is transforming the education sector.
  2. Poor management caused the project to fail.
  3. In 2010 the company first expanded overseas.
  4. She discovered the error.

Viết lại dùng Wh-cleft

  1. We need better infrastructure.
  2. The government must address inequality.
  3. The research showed that diet affects cognition.

Đáp án

It-cleft: 1. It is technology that is transforming the education sector. 2. It was poor management that caused the project to fail. 3. It was in 2010 that the company first expanded overseas. 4. It was she who discovered the error.

Wh-cleft: 1. What we need is better infrastructure. 2. What the government must address is inequality. 3. What the research showed is that diet affects cognition.

Tóm tắt nhanh

Cấu trúc Dùng khi Ví dụ
It is X that/who... Nhấn mạnh S, O, thời gian, địa điểm It is the cost that matters.
What S V is... Nhấn mạnh thông tin cuối câu What we need is time.
All S V is... Nhấn mạnh "chỉ cần duy nhất" All she wanted was support.
Reversed: X is what S V Đảo chiều, nhấn mạnh X More time is what we need.

Quy tắc vàng: - It-cleft → that (không phải "which") - Who → chỉ khi nhấn mạnh người làm chủ ngữ - Wh-cleft → "What S V is" → is/was phải hòa hợp với thì câu - Dùng cleft khi muốn tương phản rõ ràng: "X, không phải Y"

Lưu ý cho người Việt — "chính là..." không luôn map sang cleft

Tiếng Việt "chính là...", "điều mà...", "cái mà..." có thể dịch sang cleft, nhưng không bắt buộc.

VN: "Chính cô ấy là người tôi muốn cảm ơn."

Cleft đúng (it-cleft): "It is her (that/whom) I want to thank." Cleft đúng (what-cleft): "What I want to do is thank her." Active đơn giản: "I want to thank her." (cũng tốt; cleft thêm emphasis nhưng không bắt buộc)

Khi nào DÙNG cleft trong IELTS Speaking: 1. Khi muốn highlight key information (Part 2 climax): "What really stood out about that trip was the food." 2. Khi correct misunderstanding: "It was my brother, not me, who said that." 3. Part 3 emphasis: "The thing that worries me most about social media is..."

Quy tắc: 1–2 cleft mỗi 2-phút Part 2 monologue là enough. Dùng quá nhiều = unnatural.