Cleft Sentences: It was...who / What I need is...
பிரிக்கப்பட்ட வாக்கியங்கள்
Cleft sentences split a plain statement in two to spotlight exactly one piece of information — a structural way of adding emphasis that Tamil often achieves with intonation alone.
Grammar Comparison
இலக்கண ஒப்பீடு
Splitting a sentence purely to highlight one part
John broke the vase. → It was John who broke the vase. (splits the sentence to spotlight 'John' specifically)
ஜான்தான் குவளையை உடைச்சான். (the emphatic suffix -தான் achieves a similar spotlight, without restructuring the sentence)
Tamil's emphatic suffix -தான் can spotlight any word in a sentence just by attaching to it, without needing to physically break the sentence into two clauses. English cleft sentences do the same spotlighting job through structure instead: It was + the emphasized word + who/that + the rest of the sentence (It was John who broke the vase), or What + subject + verb + is + the emphasized word (What I need is more time). Both English patterns exist purely to shine a grammatical spotlight on one piece of information, the same function -தான் performs with a single suffix.
Vocabulary
சொற்கள்
| English | Pronunciation | Tamil |
|---|---|---|
| It was John who broke the vase. | it wuz jon hoo brohk thuh vayz | ஜான்தான் குவளையை உடைச்சான்.jān-thān kuvaḷaiyai uḍaichān. |
| What I need is more time. | wut eye need iz mor tym | எனக்கு வேணுமென்னா இன்னும் நேரம்தான்.enakku vēṇumennā innum nēram-thān. |
| It's the weather that's the problem. | its thuh WETH-er thats thuh PROB-lem | வானிலைதான் பிரச்சனை.vāṉilai-thān pirachanai. |