[Grammar] How To Use Emphatic Sentences?

Hey guys! Check the answers to the last episode:

1.B    2.A

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Today let’s talk about The Emphatic Pattern.

There are seven kinds of emphatic sentences in English:

■ Use ‘do’

■ Use some adjectives

■ Use some adverbs

■ Use the first position of the sentence to emphasize

■ Use attributive clauses

■ Use ‘what’ clause

■ Use emphatic structure

 

Let’s get started!

1. Use ‘do’

When there are no other auxiliary verbs in the sentence, we can use the auxiliary verb ‘do’ before the verb to indicate the emphasis on the verb.

Form:  …  do + verb  …

I do hope you’ll stay for lunch.

The ‘do’ used to indicate emphasis can change from time to time, but the subsequent verbs should use the original form.

The dog does look tired.

He did come but soon went back.

Attention: It’s not used for ‘is doing’, ‘has done’.

2. Use some adjectives

There are many adjectives used in English for emphasis.

The main types of adjectives are:

mere

very

outright

thorough

complete

At that very moment the phone rang.

We gave the room a thorough cleaning.

3. Use some adverbs

There are many adverbs in English that can be used to indicate emphasis, such as ‘only’.

Try to compare the differences below 🙂

Only I kissed him last night.

I only kissed him last night.

I kissed only him last night.

I kissed him only last night.

4. Use the first position of the sentence to emphasize

In English, the first position of a sentence is a place that is usually used to indicate emphasis.

When a component that should not be placed at the beginning of a sentence is placed at the beginning, it tends to emphasize this component. Comparison:

Normal: He kept this job twenty years.

Emphatic: This job he kept twenty years.

Normal: The students can understand this.

Emphatic: This the students can understand.

5. Use attributive clauses

Sometimes we can use an attributive clause to emphasize a noun, such as the structure:

‘the person who’

‘the thing that’

‘the place where’

‘the day when’

‘the reason why’

Comparison:

Normal: Mary keeps pigs in the garden shed.

Emphatic: Mary is the person who keeps pigs in the garden shed.

Emphatic: The garden shed is the place where Mary keeps pigs.

Emphatic: The place where Mary keeps pigs is the garden shed.

6. Use ‘what’ clause

‘What’ is usually used for emphasis in English too, such as:

This is what I have to say.

What he says is not important.

In addition, ‘what’ can sometimes be used to emphasize verbs, such as:

What we can do is (to) write to him.

7. Use emphatic structure

Form1:  It is (was) + emphasized component + that (who) + …

It was in the office that he was killed.

It is the children who broke the window.

Form2:  It is (was) not until … that …

Normal: I didn’t know real happiness until I met you.

Emphatic: It was not until I met you that I knew real happiness.

 

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Practice:

1. I  ___  love your car.

A. does           B. do          C. am doing

2. It is Taylor Swift  ___  inspires me to write songs.

A. who            B. when         C. where

2. ___  he says is not important.

A. That            B. What         C. Only

Looking forward to your comments!

See you!

Posted In:

• English Learning