Questions & Answers about Foi a ele que atiraste o confete?
Why is the preposition a right after Foi rather than at the end of the sentence like in English?
English allows dangling prepositions at the end of a sentence, like 'at' in 'who you threw the confetti at'. Portuguese strictly forbids this. The verb atirar requires the preposition a for the target (throwing 'to' or 'at' someone). When you use a cleft sentence to emphasize that target, the preposition must move to the front with the emphasized pronoun, creating Foi a ele que (literally 'It was to him that').
Why does the sentence start with Foi instead of É?
Could we use the indirect object pronoun lhe instead of a ele to say 'to him'?
No, you cannot use lhe here. Cleft sentences are built for emphasis, so you must use the independent pronoun ele together with the preposition a. Using an unstressed object pronoun like lhe in this emphasized position is grammatically incorrect. You always need the Foi + preposition + independent pronoun + que structure to emphasize who received the action.
Is a singular word in Portuguese? In English, 'confetti' is usually plural or uncountable.