EMPHASIS

A. CLEFT SENTENCES
1. IT CLEFT SENTENCES are used to emphasise new information, give explanation or make a
contrast with a previous statement

Neutral: Tom saw Will Smith at the awards party last night (subject)

Cleft sentence: It was Tom who / that saw Will Smith ….

Neutral: Tom saw Will smith last night at the…( adverb of time)

Cleft sentence: It was last night that Tom saw will Smith at… ( in informal English we can use
when instead of that).

* When a plural subject is emphasised, the verb is plural:

It was the students that were angry

2. WH- CLEFT SENTENCES are used to highlight the action in a sentence:

 Emphasising verbs with what…..do +(+ infinitive with or without to)

The manager changed the position of the team
What the manager did was (to) change the position of the team.
 Emphasising a whole sentence: What and the verb happen
The car broke down
What happened was that the car broke down

3. OTHER STRUCTURES

 All( that) , and expressions with thing

All (that) I want is your happiness= It is your happiness that I want; but NOT:
All what I want ….

The only thing that keeps me awake is coffee (NOT The only thing what…)

 Time expressions can be emphasised with It was not until…. And It was only
when….
It was not until I met you that I knew real happiness
It was only when I read her letter that I realised what was happening

 the reason why, the place where, the day when are usually linked
to the clause that we want to focus on with is or was.

I've come to discuss my future with you.

The reason why I've come is to discuss my future with you.

 The jewels are hidden under the floor at 23 Robin Hood Road, Epping.

The place where the jewels are hidden is under the floor at 23 Robin Hood
Road, Epping.

The Second World War ended on 7 May 1945 in Europe.

The day (when) the Second World War ended in Europe was 7 May 1945

B. INVERSION AND FRONTING

 Negative adverbials( hardy…. when, never, little, on no account, no
sooner…than , at no time, in no way
 After only in expressions such as: only then/later /when
Only then did I understand what she meant
 With certain adverbs and adverbials that indicate place
On the grass sat an enormous frog
 Fronting so adjective/ such+ a noun with that
So devastating were the floods that some areas may never recover
Such was the force of the storm that the trees were uprooted.
 After as and than ( formal )
She was very religious, as were most of her friends
City dwellers have a higher death rate than do country people
 Inverted conditionals without if
Should you hear anything, let me know
Were the police to have found out, I would have been in trouble
Had I known, I would have protested strongly.

C. ADDING OTHER WORDS

 By adding DO/DID
But it´s true! I did give it back to you
 By adding intensifying words/ expressions: not in the least, whatsoever, at all…
I'm not like that at all. Not in the least.
He’s had no luck whatsoever.