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Explaining Tech to Non-Tech People: it-clefts and wh-clefts for jargon-free answers

Using it-clefts and wh-clefts, this C1 English for IT lesson plan teaches how to explain tech to people outside IT.

Grammar
It-clefts (It's the old ledger that slows every release down.), wh-clefts (What we need is three more months.), all-clefts, reversed wh-clefts and The reason… is that…
Topic
A CFO who wants plain answers about late payouts and a long migration, with phrases such as the bottom line, a ballpark figure and boil down to.
Activities
A CFO's email and a blog post to read, a meeting to hear, self-checking drills, a chat and a wheel of jargon-free explanations, then an email to sales and a recording.

What's inside

  1. Chapter 1Warm-up: lost in translation

    • PictureUnlock
    • Open a box and discuss the questionOpen the boxUnlock
    • Study the phrases for explaining techVocabularyTry it
    • Match the phrases with their synonymsMatchUnlock

  2. Chapter 2Reading: the CFO wants answers

    • Read Graham's emailReal-life documentTry it
    • Read the article: Ledger v2, explained for everyoneArticleUnlock
    • True or false? Check the email and the articleTrue or falseUnlock
    • Choose the correct answer about the articleQuizUnlock

  3. Chapter 3Listening: one engineer in four

    • Listen to Maya and Graham's meetingListeningTry it
    • Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
    • Choose the correct answer about the meetingQuizUnlock

  4. Chapter 4Grammar: what matters is the focus

    • Study the scheme: cleft sentencesGrammar schemeTry it
    • Choose the correct option to complete each cleft sentenceChoose the optionUnlock
    • Drag the phrases into the gaps: Maya's answers to GrahamDrag and dropTry it
    • Complete the cleft sentences with one word in each gapFill in the gapsUnlock
    • Choose the correct answer: focus, meaning and formQuizUnlock

  5. Chapter 5Speaking: is the API down??

    • Choose the clear, calm, jargon-free repliesChatTry it
    • Spin the wheel and explain it without jargonSpin the wheelUnlock

  6. Chapter 6Homework: plain English, please

    • Match the beginnings and endings of the cleft sentencesMatchUnlock
    • Drag the phrases into the gaps: notes from the Ledger v2 teamDrag and dropUnlock
    • Find the matching pairs: jargon and plain EnglishMemory gameUnlock
    • Write an email to the sales team in plain EnglishWriting, checked by the teacherUnlock
    • Record yourself explaining your project to a friendSpeaking, checked by the teacherUnlock

23 exercises in 6 chapters. Start a 7-day free trial to open all of them, copy any part into your own lessons, and teach the lesson live.

Vocabulary

10 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.

+7 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words

  • a ballpark figure
  • technical debt
  • a stopgap
  • under the hood
  • walk someone through
  • dumb down
  • the cutover

Grammar: it-clefts and wh-clefts

A cleft splits one sentence into two parts to put a spotlight on the part that matters: the real cause, what you need, or the correction to a rumor. Learners build five kinds, check the form that follows is or was, and save them for the one point a listener must remember.

Cleft sentences: put the focus where you want it

Split one sentence into two parts to stress the key point, correct a wrong idea or prepare your listener.

Five ways to build a cleft

An it-cleft puts the focus straight after It is or It was; a wh-cleft holds it back until the end: What we need is three more months. An all-cleft means only (All we did was add a cache.), and a reversed wh-cleft opens with the focus.

PatternFormExample
it-cleftIt is / It was + focus + that / who + the restIt was a configuration change, not an attack, that delayed the payouts.
wh-cleftWhat + clause + is / was + focusWhat we need is three more months.
all-cleft (= only)All + clause + is / was + focusAll we did was add a cache.
reversed wh-cleftfocus + is / was + what + clauseThree more months is what we need.
reason / thingThe reason (why)… is that… / The thing is, …The reason we didn't know is that nothing looked broken.

Why use a cleft?

A cleft can correct a wrong idea, draw a contrast or stress a late time: It's not the new code that takes the time. It's the checking. Keep it for the point that matters most; a reply full of clefts sounds defensive.

Why use a cleft?

Plain sentence

  • A configuration change delayed the payouts.
  • The checking takes the time.
  • We noticed the problem on Tuesday.

Cleft: the focus is clear

  • It was a configuration change, not an attack, that delayed the payouts. (corrects a wrong idea)
  • It's not the new code that takes the time. It's the checking. (contrast)
  • It wasn't until Tuesday that we noticed. (= only on Tuesday, later than expected)

Don't overdo it

A cleft is a spotlight: use it for the one point that matters. If every sentence is a cleft, nothing stands out, and you start to sound defensive.

What comes after is or was?

The verb in the first part decides: after need or want, a noun or to + verb (What we need is to migrate the last services); after do or did, the base verb (What we did was roll back the release); after happened, a full clause.

  • need / want / plan in the first part → a noun or to + verb: What we need is a date. What we need is to migrate the last services.
  • do / did in the first part → the base verb (to is possible, but less common): What we did was roll back the release. All you have to do is enter the code.
  • happened in the first part → (that) + a full clause: What happened was (that) one setting changed.
  • suggest in the first part → that we + verb: What I'd suggest is that we test the cutover first.

It-clefts: the details

It is or It was stays singular, but the verb after that agrees with the focus: It's the old services that slow us down. It wasn't until takes a positive verb: It wasn't until Tuesday that anyone noticed, not nobody noticed.

  • It is / It was stays singular: It was the API keys that expired.
  • The verb after that agrees with the focus: It's the old services that slow us down. It's the ledger that slows us down.
  • For things, use that (which is possible); for people, who or that: It was Priya who spotted the bug.
  • It wasn't until + a time or an event + that + a positive verb: It wasn't until Tuesday that anyone noticed.

Typical mistakes

  • What we need is migrate the old services.

    What we need is to migrate the old services.

    After need / want: a noun or to + verb.

  • The reason is because the job didn't run.

    The reason is that the job didn't run.

    “Reason” and “because” say the same thing twice: use “is that.”

  • It's the old ledger what slows us down.

    It's the old ledger that slows us down.

    In it-clefts, use that or who, never what.

  • It wasn't until Tuesday that nobody noticed.

    It wasn't until Tuesday that anyone noticed.

    The negative is already in wasn't.

Try the it-clefts and wh-clefts exercises

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What's in the lesson

  • 11 auto-checked exercises
  • 3 games
  • 2 teacher-checked tasks
  • 1 real-life document
  • 1 article
  • 1 grammar scheme
  • 1 set of word cards
  • 1 audio clip
  • 1 picture
  • 1 transcript

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

  • correct a wrong idea with an it-cleft: It was a configuration change, not an attack, that delayed the payouts.
  • save the key point for the end with a wh-cleft or an all-cleft: What I'd suggest is that we test the cutover first. All we did was add a cache.
  • choose the right form after is or was: What we need is to migrate…, What we did was roll back…, The reason is that…
  • explain a technical problem to a non-technical manager in terms of money, time and risk, without jargon: Nobody lost a cent. What they lost was a day.

Lesson 3 completes the unit Talking to the team in English for IT C1 · Across the Company, after async updates and code review. It returns to the cleft sentences of English for IT B2 lesson 14, which gave a tech talk its emphasis, and points them at listeners outside IT; the next lesson opens the unit Shipping and incidents with conditionals without if. A finance chief who needs one sentence for the board wants the key point in the spotlight, and a cleft puts it there.

A box of questions about explaining tech to outsiders opens the lesson, then ten phrases with pictures and audio, from in plain English and a ballpark figure to under the hood and the cutover, and synonyms to match. Students read the CFO's email asking for straight answers and the engineering manager's blog post that gives them, then hear the two meet in an AI-voiced dialogue. The scheme leads into four self-checking drills, among them the manager's answers to complete with cleft phrases. In the chat, students calm a CFO who thinks the API is down, and a wheel asks them to explain an API, latency or technical debt without jargon.

Homework has three self-checking exercises, cleft sentences to match, the lesson's phrases to drag into the team's notes and a memory game of jargon and plain English, then two tasks the teacher reviews: an email to sales about two-factor authentication, and a recording that explains a real project to a friend.

Grammar:
cleft sentences · it-clefts · wh-clefts
Topic:
explaining tech · talking to stakeholders · plain English

Teaching tips

  • Collect the class's own jargon first: each learner names three terms that colleagues outside IT ask about, and the class explains them with What it does is… or All you have to do is…
  • Play the CFO for five minutes: fire questions from the email, such as Were we attacked? or Would more people make it faster?, and accept only answers with a cleft and no acronyms.
  • Cleft one plain sentence three ways at the board: We noticed the problem on Tuesday becomes It was on Tuesday that…, What we noticed on Tuesday was… and It wasn't until Tuesday that…
  • One-to-one, ask for an analogy: how would the learner explain their own system to a relative? Then compare it with the blog post's restaurant kitchen, which explains a migration that can't close the business for a night.

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The whole course: English for IT C1 · Across the Company

15 lessons at C1 for people who build software, in American English, with definitions instead of translations. The people of Kestrel Cloud, a fictional payments startup, write updates, reviews, RFCs and postmortems, explain tech to non-tech colleagues and negotiate scope. Real cases include the CrowdStrike outage and the xz backdoor.See the course

  1. Unit 1 Talking to the team

    async updates, code review and plain explanations: the future perfect, hedging, cleft sentences

    1. Lesson 1Async Stand-ups: Status Updates People Can Act OnFuture forms for status updates
    2. Lesson 2Code Review Without the DramaHedging in code review
    3. Lesson 3 · you're hereExplaining Tech to Non-Tech PeopleIt-clefts and wh-clefts

  2. Unit 2 Shipping and incidents

    estimates, releases and outages: conditionals without if, phrasal verbs, modal perfects

    1. Lesson 4Estimates, Deadlines and Saying No (Politely)Conditionals without if and mixed conditionals
    2. Lesson 5Release Day: Rolling Out and Rolling BackPhrasal verbs and their noun forms
    3. Lesson 6Incident! Learning from the CrowdStrike OutageModal perfects and narrative tenses

  3. Unit 3 Security and design

    advisories, trade-offs and RFCs: passive reporting structures, concession and contrast, nominalization

    1. Lesson 7Security Advisory: The xz BackdoorPassive reporting structures
    2. Lesson 8System Design: Every Choice Has a CostConcession, contrast and modified comparatives
    3. Lesson 9Writing an RFC That Gets ApprovedNominalization and formal register

  4. Unit 4 Docs, metrics and meetings

    READMEs, dashboards and follow-ups: participle clauses, describing trends, reporting verbs

    1. Lesson 10Docs People Actually ReadReduced relative clauses and participle clauses
    2. Lesson 11Metrics, Dashboards and SLOsPrepositions with numbers, trends and approximation
    3. Lesson 12Meeting Notes and Follow-upsReporting verbs and their patterns

  5. Unit 5 Retros, interviews and AI

    looking back and ahead: wish and would rather, inversion, formal obligation and permission

    1. Lesson 13The Retro: What Went Wrong This QuarterWish, would rather and it's high time
    2. Lesson 14The Interview: Selling Your AchievementsInversion for emphasis
    3. Lesson 15AI at Work: Writing the Team's RulesObligation and permission in formal rules

Questions about this lesson

What is a wh-cleft sentence?
A wh-cleft opens with a what clause and ends on the focus. What merchants want most is to see today's payouts at a glance. What happened was that one setting changed. The what part prepares the listener; the part after is or was carries the news, so the answer comes last, where it stands out. Asked for a ballpark figure, the engineering manager in Explaining Tech to Non-Tech People on edio.ai answers with one.
What is an it-cleft sentence?
An it-cleft puts the focus between It was and that, or between It is and that. It's ideal for correcting a wrong idea, because the focus can carry its own not: It was a configuration change, not an attack, that delayed the payouts. For people, use who: It was Priya who spotted the bug. In Explaining Tech to Non-Tech People, a C1 English for IT lesson on edio.ai, an it-cleft answers a CFO who asks whether the company was attacked.
Is a pseudo-cleft the same as a wh-cleft?
Yes: pseudo-cleft is another name for a wh-cleft, a sentence such as What we need is three more months. Turned around, it becomes a reversed pseudo-cleft, which opens with the focus: Three more months is what we need. Both stress the same words, and the reversed form often rounds off an answer.
What does "All we did was" mean?
All we did was means we did only this one small thing: All we did was add a cache. This all-cleft shrinks the action, which makes it useful for reassurance: All you have to do is enter the code. It works with other verbs too: All we changed was one line in a config file. Compare What we did was roll back the release, which puts the action in focus without making it small.
Is it "What we need is to migrate" or "What we need is migrate"?
After need, use to + verb or a noun: What we need is to migrate the old services, or What we need is a date. After do or did, the bare verb is normal: What we did was roll back the release. All you have to do is enter the code. So the verb in the what part decides the form that follows is or was.
Is it "It's the old services that slow us down" or "that slows us down"?
It's that slow: the verb agrees with the focus, here a plural noun. It's the old services that slow us down. It's the ledger that slows us down. It is or It was stays singular whatever follows, even before a plural focus: It was the API keys that expired. A quiz in Explaining Tech to Non-Tech People on edio.ai tests exactly this pair.
Is it "It wasn't until Tuesday that anyone noticed" or "nobody noticed"?
Say anyone noticed: the negative is already in wasn't. It wasn't until Tuesday that anyone noticed means people noticed only on Tuesday, later than expected. Nobody noticed adds a second negative and muddles the meaning. The pattern works with events too: It wasn't until merchants started calling sales that we knew.
What does "boil down to" mean?
Boil down to means to be mainly about one simple point: In the end, it all boils down to one thing: numbers the finance team can trust. It's a natural way to close an explanation for non-technical people, often inside a wh-cleft: What it all boils down to is this… The blog post in Explaining Tech to Non-Tech People on edio.ai sums up a quarter of engineering work exactly this way.
What does "in plain English" mean?
In plain English means in simple words that anyone can follow, with no jargon or acronyms: Please answer in plain English. People use it to ask for a clear version (Can you say that in plain English?) or to offer one: Here are the answers, in plain English. Plain doesn't mean dumbed down: keep the facts that matter and drop only the terms nobody outside IT knows.
How do you explain technical jargon to non-technical people?
Swap each term for what it means to the listener: money, time or risk. Instead of the payout cron didn't fire, say The payouts didn't go out last night, so merchants haven't received them yet. For bigger ideas, use an analogy: technical debt is a loan you pay interest on with every release. And answer the real worry first: No, the API is up, and card payments are working normally.
How do I teach cleft sentences to C1 learners?
Teach clefts as answers to real questions, not as transformations on paper. Ask Who found the bad setting? and model It was Tom who found it. Ask More engineers, then? and model No. What we need is three more months, not more people. Then let learners field questions about their own projects from a non-technical boss, with one cleft for the key point and plain sentences around it.
Are there interactive exercises for it-clefts and wh-clefts?
Yes: drag-and-drop gaps and chats check cleft forms as you go. Without signing up, you can try four parts of Explaining Tech to Non-Tech People, a C1 English for IT lesson on edio.ai, on this page: the CFO's email asking for straight answers, his meeting with the engineering manager, her answers to complete with It was, What happened or All we did, and a chat that replies to Is the API down?? without jargon. Everything else is locked.
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