Clefts and Focus Constructions

Every language needs a way to put a spotlight on one piece of a sentence — to say not just "Peter broke the window," but "it was Peter who broke the window," singling Peter out against everyone else. English leans heavily on the cleft: it is X that…, what I need is…. Czech can do the same, but it usually doesn't need to, because it already has a more economical tool: free word order plus intonation. This page maps the Czech inventory of focus devices — from the genuine to je…, kdo cleft, through the ten…, co correlative, to focusing particles like právě — and, just as importantly, shows when an English-trained instinct to build a heavy cleft should instead yield to a simple reordering.

First: why Czech needs clefts less than English

English word order is rigid (subject–verb–object), so to emphasize a non-subject you can't just move it — you wrap it in a cleft. Czech word order is pragmatically governed: the most newsworthy, focused element naturally gravitates to the end of the clause (the rheme), and contrastive material can be fronted to the start. So a great deal of what English does with it-is clefts, Czech does for free by reordering and stressing.

Here Petr sits at the end, the natural focus slot, and carries the main stress — no cleft machinery required. The same job in English forces it was Peter who…. This is the baseline you measure every Czech cleft against: would a reordering already do it?

The to je…, kdo / to je…, co cleft

When you do want an overt cleft — for heavy contrastive force, or to make the focus unmistakable in writing — Czech uses to je / to byl ("it is / it was") followed by the focused element and a relative clause introduced by kdo (for people) or co (for things). The copula agrees with the tense; to stays neuter and invariable.

Two things to note. First, the relativizer is kdo/co, not který, in this cleft frame — který would sound stilted here; for the broader choice among relativizers see který vs jenž vs co. Second, this construction is more at home in (formal) and (literary) registers and in emphatic spoken contrast; in neutral conversation the bare reordering (To okno rozbil Petr) is preferred.

The ten/to…, co pseudo-cleft ("what…")

English what I need is peace is a pseudo-cleft: a free relative ("what I need") equated with the focused phrase ("peace"). Czech builds the equivalent with the demonstrative to + the relativizer co, giving to, co… ("that which / what"). The whole to, co… clause is the subject, and the focused element follows the copula.

The comma after to is obligatory: to is the head, co… is a relative clause modifying it. This pseudo-cleft is fully natural across registers and is one of the safest cleft-type constructions for a learner to deploy.

The ten…, který/co correlative ("the one that")

Closely related but doing identification rather than focus is the ten…, který (or ten…, co) correlative — "the one who/that," "the kind that." Here ten is a demonstrative head pointing forward to a defining relative clause. It singles a referent out of a set.

In speech, co very often replaces který in this slot (ten film, co jsem hledal) — it is (informal) but extremely common; který is the neutral-to-(formal) choice. The mechanics of the head pronoun agreeing in gender, number, and case with its clause are laid out on the ten…který correlative page.

Focusing particles: právě, zrovna, to

Czech's most idiomatic focus device isn't a clause at all — it's a small focusing particle placed directly in front of the constituent you want to highlight. Právě ("precisely, exactly") and zrovna ("just, exactly") narrow attention onto the next word; the particle to can do similar emphatic work. These are far lighter than a cleft and do most of the everyday focusing.

Compare the particle version Právě on to řekl with the full cleft To byl on, kdo to řekl. Both single out on, but the particle is shorter, more conversational, and at least as emphatic. For most spoken contrastive focus, the particle wins; the full cleft is the stronger, more written-sounding option.

Fronting and contrastive topics

The mirror image of end-focus is fronting: moving a constituent to the front of the clause to mark it as a contrastive topic ("As for X…"). Unlike a cleft, fronting doesn't equate anything — it just reshuffles the linear order, which Czech's morphology permits because case endings keep the grammatical roles clear.

Both sentences front the object/topic for contrast without any to je… frame. This is the workhorse of Czech information packaging and the reason full clefts stay comparatively rare; the dedicated treatment is on the fronting and marked word order page.

Right-dislocation: the afterthought tag

A final, distinctly spoken device is right-dislocation: you produce a pronoun in the clause and then tack the full noun on at the end as a clarifying afterthought, often after a pause. It is (informal) and conversational.

The pronoun ten / ta anticipates the referent; the full phrase arrives late as an explicit tag. This packages the noun as a settled topic while keeping the predicate up front where the emotional weight lands.

Choosing the device

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Czech focuses primarily through word order and intonation — the clause-final slot is the natural focus position, so full clefts are less needed than in English.
• The overt cleft is to je / to byl + X + kdo/co, with kdo for people and co for things; it reads as (formal)/(literary) or strongly emphatic.
• The pseudo-cleft to, co…, je X ("what … is …") is natural in all registers — mind the comma after to.
• The correlative ten…, který/co identifies "the one that"; co for který is (informal).
• Focusing particles právě / zrovna are the idiomatic, lightweight way to spotlight a word in speech.
• Resist over-translating the English it-is-X-that cleft when a simple Czech reordering already carries the focus.