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Anonymous Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

Cleft sentence

What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar.

Is the above sentence a cleft one?
  

Top answer

Anonymous What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar. Is the above sentence above a cleft one? No.

— CalifJim

  • Anonymous What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar.
  • Is the above sentence above a cleft one?
  • No.
  • It's a pseudo-cleft.
  • Cleft sentences start with "It".
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4 Answers
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AnonymousWhat this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar.
Is the above sentence above a cleft one?
No. It's a pseudo-cleft. Cleft sentences start with "It".

CJ
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Thank you, CJ, for the reply.

PS: Can't "above" be used in the attributive position? Does it have to be used adverbially only in questions like mine?
My dictionary places "above" in such word classes: adverb, preposition, noun, adjective (written or printed earlier in the same text or document: the above paragraph.)
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AnonymousCan't "above" be used in the attributive position?
It's possible that styles are changing. I was taught always to write "above" and "below" after the noun.

the paragraph above / the sentence below / ...

I see it written "wrong" so often that I seldom bother to correct it anymore. By chance, I changed it on your post.
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CalifJimI see it written "wrong" so often that I seldom bother to correct it anymore.
Above has been used before a noun for a long time, unlike below, which can only follow a noun. However, this is what Collins Dictionary says about anymore: In British English, the spelling anymore is sometimes considered incorr
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