French Cleft Sentences

[Adam Kim]

So, I wonder how many templates that French has to make cleft sentences.

So far all I know is: C'est... qui..

How does "vouloir, c'est pouvoir" be syntactically interpreted? It's not a "c'est... qui" construction.

[Neil Coffey]

The pattern you give is basically it, but can be extended slightly in that:
- c'est can also be plural ce sont
- any simple tense can be used (so you can have c'était, ce seront etc)
- qui can be que as required

So other examples of clefts would be:

Ce seront eux qui viendront demain
Ce n'était pas nous qui sommes venus hier
Il faut que ce soit toi qui décides
C'est Marie que j'ai vu hier

Cases like this would probably be included too:

Ça sera lui, donc, qui m'aidera.

(More formal usage would prefer ce....)

Various authors then use the term pseudocleft to describe the second type of construction you mention. This construction is much freer, and would cover things like Ce dont je parle, c'est mon travail and possibly cases like Il y a Marie qui est malade.