Emphasizing information (fue... quien)

Emphasizing Information

When trying to get to the bottom of an office mystery, you often need to emphasize exactly who did something, when it happened, or where. In Spanish, you can do this using cleft sentences (oraciones hendidas).

The structure is simple: a conjugated form of the verb ser + the information you want to emphasize + a relative pronoun or adverb.

Emphasizing Things

To emphasize a specific noun, use el que, la que, los que, or las que (the one that / those that) to agree with the noun's gender and number. The verb ser usually matches the tense of the event you are describing (such as fue for a past event).

Emphasizing Places and Times

When focusing on a location, use the relative adverb donde (where). For time expressions, use cuando (when).

Emphasizing People

When pointing the finger at someone, you can use el que / la que, or you can use quien / quienes (who). If the emphasized person is a subject pronoun like tú or yo, the verb ser must be conjugated to match it (e.g., fuiste tú, fui yo).

Emphasizing Ideas or Concepts

If the focus of your sentence is an abstract idea, a situation, or a general concept rather than a specific physical noun, use the neutral relative pronoun lo que.

Keeping Prepositions

Sometimes the emphasized part of the sentence naturally requires a preposition, such as the personal a. When this happens, the preposition stays right next to the emphasized word (after ser), and you will often see it repeated before the relative pronoun.