Emphasis & advanced · CEFR C1 · Fluent

It was John who… — English emphasis and inversion

Splitting one sentence into two so that one part carries all the weight. It is how English underlines a word out loud.

The shape

It + be + the part you mean + who / that + clause

Point at exactly which part of a sentence matters.

In Hindi

एक वाक्य को दो में बाँटकर एक हिस्से पर पूरा ज़ोर डालना।

CoCap explains every structure in both languages, because a rule you understand in Hindi is a rule you can use in English.

The mistake to fix first

The sentence Indian-English speakers actually produce, and the reason it is wrong.

Commonly said	Correct English
It was John which called you.	It was John who called you. John is a person, so the joining word is "who" or "that".

Commonly said

Correct English

It was John which called you.

It was John who called you.

John is a person, so the joining word is "who" or "that".

Easy to confuse with

Close enough to be mixed up with this one. Knowing the difference is most of knowing either.

Questions people ask

What is the it was john who… used for?: Splitting one sentence into two so that one part carries all the weight. It is how English underlines a word out loud. In practice: point at exactly which part of a sentence matters.
How do you form the it was john who…?: It + be + the part you mean + who / that + clause.
What is the most common mistake with the it was john who…?: Saying “It was John which called you.” instead of “It was John who called you.”. John is a person, so the joining word is "who" or "that".

Where it was john who… fits

Where this structure sits in the ladder, and what surrounds it.

It was John who… is a CEFR C1 structure — the fluent band — and it belongs to emphasis & advanced. CoCap’s syllabus files every structure this way so you can learn in order instead of jumping between whatever a search happened to return.

Reading it is not the same as saying it.

CoCap turns this page into practice: Hindi sentence in, English sentence out, corrected one thing at a time. Free, no card.

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