Cohesion

Emphasis

Emphasis is used to give extra importance to part of a sentence.

Pronunciation

In spoken English, changes in pronunciation are used for emphasis. The most obvious changes are that the part of the sentence emphasised is often spoken louder and with a higher intonation, and that words which have weak forms are pronounced in their strong form.

Do/does/did for contrastive emphasis

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.

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.

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.

To emphasise an auxiliary verb, decontract it and stress it.

• He's not very charming.
• On the contrary; I think he is very charming.

Fronting

Part of a sentence can sometimes be emphasised by "fronting" it (= putting it to the front of the sentence).

• Have you got that money I lent you?
• That money I lent you - have you got it?

Sometimes it is necessary to change the word order after fronting part of a sentence.

• We'd never seen such a beautiful place.
• Never had we seen such a beautiful place.

For more information about inversion after fronting part of a sentence, see Syntax, Inversion in statements.

Cleft sentences

Certain structures can be put at the beginning of a sentence to emphasise part of that sentence. These structures change the word order of the original sentence, and the result is sometimes called a cleft sentence.

It + is/was [+ clause] that [+ clause]

The part of the sentence to be emphasised is taken from its original position in the sentence and put between is/was and that.

• Gavin likes fast food.
  It's Gavin who likes fast food. (emphasises Gavin)
  It's fast food that Gavin likes. (emphasises fast food)

What [+ clause] is/was [+ clause]

The part of the sentence to be emphasised comes after is/was.

• I didn't like the soup.
  What I didn't like was the soup. (emphasises the soup)
• His attitude annoys me.
  What annoys me is his attitude. (emphasises his attitude)
• We need more time.
  What we need is more time. (emphasises more time)
• They had to pass a test.
  What they had to do was (to) pass a test. (emphasises pass a test)