Emphasis
There are a number of ways to add
emphasis in the English language. You
can emphasize your statements when
you are expressing your opinions,
disagreeing, making strong
suggestions, expressing annoyance,
etc.
Use of the Passive
The passive voice is used when focusing on the
person or thing affected by an action.
Example:
Your homework will be collected on Friday.
In this example, attention is called to what will
be collected (homework).
Expressing Annoyance
Use the continuous form modified by 'always', 'forever',
etc. to express annoyance at another person's action. This
form is considered an exception as it used to express
a routine rather than an action occurring at a particular
moment in time.
Examples:
Bob is forever late to school.
Juliana was always being bullied by her peers.
Note that this form is generally used with the present or
past continuous (he is always doing, they were always
doing).
Cleft sentences
Cleft sentences allow us to emphasise different parts
of the sentence, depending on which part is the most
important. Cleft sentences are usually introduced
by it or by a clause beginning with what.
Cleft sentences beginning with it
Here is a simple sentence with no particular
emphasis.
You invited me to the party yesterday.
We can emphasise different elements of this
sentence by 'fronting' them, that is, moving
them to the front of the sentence after it + be.
It was you who invited me to the party
yesterday.
Emphasis: you (not another person)
It was yesterday that you invited me to the
party.
Emphasis: yesterday (not another time)
It was the party that you invited me to
yesterday.
Emphasis: the party (not another event)
Cleft sentences beginning with what
What clauses + be are common in spoken English.
They emphasise the part of the sentence that
is outside the what clause.
What I like best about going to the cinema
is talking about the film afterwards.
What drives me up the wall is people talking during
the film.
What I found was that the films my friends liked were
very different from the ones I liked.
This kind of cleft sentence can also begin
with where, why, who, how, etc.
How the kids did this is still unclear to me.
We can also put the what clause at the end of
the sentence.
The game we played was what I liked the
most.
Inversion with negative adverbials
We can also use inversion to add emphasis. It
has a more formal, persuasive and impressive
effect.
To invert a sentence, we put the adverbial
(e.g. never, rarely, not only, etc.) at the
beginning and change the normal position of the
subject and the auxiliary verb.
Rarely have I read such an original story.
(I have rarely read such an original story.)
If there is no auxiliary verb, we need to
add one.
Not only do they have live reptiles but
you can also touch them.
(They not only have live reptiles but you
can also touch them.)
Little, no sooner and not
Some other negative words and expressions used
like this are little, no sooner, never and not.
Little did I realise that the restaurant was about to
close.
(I didn't realise that the restaurant was about to
close.)
No sooner had we got inside than the concert
ended!
Not a single positive comment did I hear from Will.
Emphatic auxiliaries
Do/does/did for contrastive emphasis
1)Forms of do can be used with a positive verb for
emphasis. Do is used in this way when we want to
correct or contradict information.
I know you're not going out, but if you do go out,
put on something warm.
2)Do is also used in this way when we want to
imagine the consequences of an impossible or very
unlikely situation.
If asteroid XF11 did collide with Earth, it would do
so at more than 17,000 mph.
3)Do is not necessary when there is already an
auxiliary verb. In these cases, the auxiliary verb is
emphasised.
If the asteroid was on a collision course with Earth,
a way to alter its orbit would have to be found.
He's not my type of person, but you're right,
he is very charming.
4)To emphasise an auxiliary verb, decontract it and
stress it.
He's not very charming.
On the contrary; I think he is very charming.
