A French sentence has the same word order as an English one most of the time — Pierre a fait ça, Pierre did that — but when a French speaker wants to put one element of the sentence under a spotlight, they reach for a tool that English uses much more sparingly: the cleft. C'est Pierre qui a fait ça, "It's Pierre who did that." The information content is identical to Pierre a fait ça. What changes is which part of the sentence the speaker is pointing at — which constituent is the answer to an unspoken question. English can do most of this work with stress alone (PIERRE did it), but French stress is too even to carry that weight. So French clefts. Constantly.
This page is the syntactic reference: the four flavours of cleft (qui, que, dont, où), the rule for choosing between them, the agreement subtleties, and the limits of the construction.
The basic frame
A cleft sentence takes a clause, lifts one constituent out of it, and reframes the result as two pieces:
- A presentational c'est X (or ce sont X in some plural cases)
- A relative clause introduced by qui, que, dont, or où, depending on the role of X
The choice of relative pronoun is exactly the same one you make in ordinary relative clauses: the one whose syntactic role matches the role of the focused element back in the underlying sentence. Once you see this, the four cases are not four rules — they are one rule applied four ways.
Case 1: c'est X qui — subject focus
When the focused constituent was the subject of the underlying clause, the relative pronoun is qui.
C'est Pierre qui a fait ça.
It's Pierre who did that.
C'est ma sœur qui m'a appris à conduire.
It's my sister who taught me to drive.
C'est le bruit qui me dérange.
It's the noise that bothers me.
Underneath: Pierre a fait ça. Pierre is the subject. Lift him out, frame him with c'est, and continue with qui because Pierre is still functioning as the subject of a fait. The verb in the relative clause agrees with the focused element:
C'est moi qui ai raison.
It's me who is right — verb agrees with *moi* (1sg), so *ai* not *a*.
C'est nous qui avons décidé.
It's us who decided — verb agrees with *nous*, so *avons* not *a*.
Ce sont eux qui sont arrivés en retard.
They're the ones who arrived late.
This person-and-number agreement on the embedded verb is one of the most common errors learners make in clefts. The verb does not agree with the impersonal ce; it agrees with the focused constituent.
Case 2: c'est X que — object focus
When the focused constituent was the direct object (or any non-subject argument that is not introduced by a preposition), the relative pronoun is que.
C'est ce livre que je lis en ce moment.
It's this book I'm reading right now.
C'est Marie que j'ai vue hier.
It's Marie I saw yesterday.
C'est la vérité que tu cherches ?
Is it the truth you're looking for?
Underneath: Je lis ce livre en ce moment. Ce livre is the direct object. Lift it out, and the verb that follows (je lis) already has its subject (je), so the relative pronoun is que. The participle agreement of preceding direct object applies normally — que j'ai vue with e because the focused Marie is feminine and now precedes the participle.
C'est cette photo que j'ai prise dans les Alpes.
This is the picture I took in the Alps — *prise* agrees with feminine *cette photo*, the preceding direct object.
Case 3: c'est X dont — de-complement focus
When the focused constituent was complement of de — that is, when the underlying sentence used a verb taking de, an adjective taking de, or a noun phrase modified by de — the relative is dont.
C'est ce livre dont je te parlais.
This is the book I was telling you about — underlying: *je te parlais de ce livre*.
C'est Pierre dont je suis fier.
It's Pierre I'm proud of — underlying: *je suis fier de Pierre*.
C'est ce projet dont nous avons besoin.
This is the project we need — underlying: *nous avons besoin de ce projet*.
The English equivalent always involves a of / about / for preposition that French has folded into dont. Whenever the underlying verb or expression took de, the cleft uses dont.
Case 4: c'est X où — place or time focus
When the focused constituent was an adverbial of place or time, the relative is où.
C'est ici que j'habite.
This is where I live.
C'est à Paris que nous nous sommes rencontrés.
It was in Paris that we met.
C'est en 2019 qu'elle a publié son premier roman.
It was in 2019 that she published her first novel.
Notice an important detail: when the focused element is a place or time, French often uses que rather than où. Modern usage prefers que in most cases — c'est ici *que j'habite, c'est à Paris **que nous nous sommes rencontrés. The *où form is reserved for cases where the underlying clause already had no other obvious focus and the relative needs to mark the place/time relation.
C'est ici où j'habite.
(less common) This is where I live.
C'est ici que j'habite.
(more common) This is where I live.
For learner production, c'est X que is safe for nearly every place/time cleft. The où version is a stylistic alternative.
The full pattern with prepositions
The general rule for prepositional clefts: the preposition travels with the focused element, and the relative is que.
C'est avec lui que je voyage le plus souvent.
He's the one I travel with most often — *avec* travels with *lui*, then *que*.
C'est pour Marie que j'ai acheté ce cadeau.
It was for Marie that I bought this gift.
C'est sur cette table que j'ai laissé mes clés.
It's on this table that I left my keys.
C'est à cause de toi que nous sommes en retard.
It's because of you that we're late.
This frame works for almost every preposition: avec, pour, sur, sous, dans, contre, sans, chez, vers, à cause de, malgré, à propos de… The preposition stays glued to the focused element, and que introduces the rest.
Plural agreement: c'est versus ce sont
When the focused element is plural, traditional grammar requires ce sont rather than c'est. In modern spoken French, c'est is widely used regardless of number, but in writing the agreement is often expected.
Ce sont mes amis qui m'ont aidé.
It was my friends who helped me. (formal/written)
C'est mes amis qui m'ont aidé.
It was my friends who helped me. (informal spoken)
Ce sont eux qui ont raison.
They're the ones who are right.
Note that for nous and vous (1pl and 2pl), c'est is always used, not ce sont:
C'est nous qui avons fait le travail.
We're the ones who did the work — never *ce sont nous*.
C'est vous qui décidez.
You're the one(s) who decides.
Why French uses clefts so much
English speakers often ask why French clefts so heavily. The answer is phonological. English can shift stress within a phrase to pick out one word: I'm reading *THIS book. French stress is fixed on the final syllable of each rhythmic group, and you cannot move it around to mark focus. So when a French speaker wants to highlight one constituent — to contrast it with something else, to answer an implicit question, to correct a mistaken assumption — they reframe the sentence with *c'est… qui/que. This is not stylistic flourish; it is the everyday tool that does the same job English does with stress.
A learner who avoids clefts will sound oddly flat in conversation. Compare:
J'ai oublié mes clés.
I forgot my keys. (neutral)
C'est mes clés que j'ai oubliées !
It's my keys I forgot! (focused, exasperated)
Both are grammatical. The first is a flat statement; the second emphasises that the keys are the issue, perhaps in response to "what's wrong?" The cleft does work that English would do with stress and intonation alone.
Negation and questions in clefts
Clefts can be negated and questioned just like any other sentence. The negation usually scopes over the c'est:
Ce n'est pas Pierre qui a fait ça.
It wasn't Pierre who did that.
Ce n'est pas ce livre que je voulais.
It's not this book that I wanted.
For questions, all three registers work:
C'est toi qui as appelé ? (informal — intonation)
Was it you who called?
Est-ce que c'est toi qui as appelé ? (neutral)
Was it you who called?
Est-ce toi qui as appelé ? (formal — inverted *c'est*)
Was it you who called?
Limits of the construction
Not every constituent can be clefted. The verb itself cannot be focused this way — to emphasise the verb, French uses other strategies (Ce que je fais, c'est…, dislocation, intonational stress on the verb in spoken French).
❌ C'est manger qu'il fait.
Wrong — verbs cannot be clefted with *c'est… qui/que*.
✅ Ce qu'il fait, c'est manger.
What he's doing is eating — pseudo-cleft with *ce que* instead.
Verbs of movement and direction sometimes resist cleavage when que would create ambiguity, and certain idioms with frozen syntax block the construction. But for noun phrases, prepositional phrases, and place/time adverbials, clefting is fully productive.
Common Mistakes
❌ C'est moi qui a raison.
Wrong — the verb in the relative clause must agree with the focused element. *Moi* is 1sg, so the form is *ai*, not *a*.
✅ C'est moi qui ai raison.
It's me who is right.
❌ C'est ce livre dont je lis.
Wrong — *lire* is a direct-object verb (*lire un livre*), not a *de*-verb. The relative is *que*, not *dont*.
✅ C'est ce livre que je lis.
This is the book I'm reading.
❌ C'est avec lui qui je travaille.
Wrong — after a preposition (*avec lui*), the relative pronoun is *que*, not *qui*. *Qui* only marks subject focus.
✅ C'est avec lui que je travaille.
He's the one I work with.
❌ C'est manger qu'il aime.
Wrong — bare infinitives cannot be clefted with *c'est X que*; you need *Ce qu'il aime, c'est manger*.
✅ Ce qu'il aime, c'est manger.
What he likes is eating.
❌ C'est en France qui j'habite.
Wrong — place is not a subject. After *en France*, the relative is *que*, not *qui*.
✅ C'est en France que j'habite.
It's in France that I live.
Key takeaways
The cleft is the everyday French focus-marking tool. The four flavours — qui, que, dont, où — are not separate rules but one principle applied through the underlying syntactic role of the focused element: subject takes qui, direct object takes que, de-complement takes dont, place or time takes où (or que, more commonly today). Prepositional phrases bring their preposition along with the focused element and connect with que. The verb in the relative agrees with the focused constituent, not with the impersonal ce. Plural triggers ce sont in writing but often c'est in speech. Learn the construction and use it as freely as a native: it is one of the highest-frequency tools in the French syntactic kit.
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