Page 138 - Practical English Usage 3ed - Michael Swan, Oxford

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city and town
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Most people simply use city to talk about large and important towns - examples in the UK are Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, liverpool and London.
City can be used in a more exact way to talk about a town that has been given a special status by the king or queen (in Britain) or by the state (in some other English-speaking countries).
cleft sentences (1): What I need is a holiday
We can emphasise particular words and expressions by putting everything into a kind of relative clause except the words we want to emphasise: this makes them stand out. These structures are called 'cleft sentences' by grammarians (cleft means 'divided'). They are useful in writing (because we cannot use intonation for emphasis in written language), but they are also common in speech.
Mary is the person who ...; What I need is ...
The words to be emphasised are joined to the relative clause by is! was and an expression like the person who, or what (= the thing that).
We can put the words to be emphasised first or last in the sentence. Compare:
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What Phil is is the secretary.
Instead of the person or what, we can use less general expressions.
You're the woman (that) I'll always love best.
Casablanca is a film (that) I watch again and again.
A what-clause is normally considered to be singular; if it begins a cleft sentence it is followed by isl was. But a plural verb is sometimes possible before a plural noun in an informal style.
What we want islare some ofthose cakes. For more Information about what-clauses. see 497.
the place where ...; the day when ...; the reason why ...
We can use these expressions to emphasise a place, time or reason.
- MarykeptapigINTHEGARDENSHED.
The garden shed was the place where Mary kept a pig. The place where Mary kept a pig was the garden shed.
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MARY kept a pig in the garden shed.
Mary was the person who kept a pig in the garden shed. The person who kept a pig in the garden shed was Mary. Mary kept A PIG in the garden shed.
A pig was what Mary kept in the garden shed. What Mary kept in the garden shed was a pig. Phil is m E SECRETARY.
The secretary is what Phil is.
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