10 Ways to Emphasize Ideas

Language is truly amazing because we often have multiple tools at our disposal. Think of all the ways we can ask a question. Imagine our friend had a job interview.
– We might ask about it directly: How did the interview go?
– We could use a tag question to broach the subject: The interview was today, wasn’t it?
– Alternatively, we can use a negative question: Didn’t you have the interview today?
– We may opt for an embedded question to sound less demanding: I was just wondering how your interview went.
– If the topic is understood, a simple “Well?” could imply that we want to know the outcome.

As my advanced students push me to expand their arsenal, I thought it would be beneficial to list multiple ways we can emphasize ideas in English, from pronunciation to grammar. Feel free to add to the list if I left anything out.

1. When speaking, we can shift stress within a sentence to clarify our meaning and emphasize a word:
Daniela was here. I saw her myself. [Stress shifted from “here” to “was” for emphasis.]

2. In spoken and written English, we can use sentence adverbs like indeed and actually.
It was indeed my birthday, but I didn’t want to make a big deal of it, so I kept quiet.
I’m actually not that scared of spiders anymore.

3. Some would say that no and not any are basically the same in meaning, but the Cambridge Dictionary gives the edge to no + noun when expressing the absence of something:
I don’t have any patience with that kind of thing.
I have no patience with that kind of thing.
Add an intensifier, and there is little room for doubt: I have absolutely no patience with that kind of thing.

4. Similarly, no + noun can be a succinct way of expressing not in any way, shape, or form:
After what happened last year, she is no friend of mine.
We are not friends in any way, shape, or form.

5. Fronting allows us to move important information to the front of the sentence for emphasis:
Right in before my eyes was the opportunity I had been waiting for.
Every morning, I do gentle stretching.

6. Negative adverbs and inversion ties into fronting. When we move a negative adverb to the initial position for emphasis, it requires inversion.
Never had we seen such strong winds.
Not only was it windy, but it also rained hard for hours.

7. IT-clefts emphasize a person or thing by following the focus word with an identifying adjective clause.
It can be a song or a movie clip that triggers a grammar question.
It’s my students who push me to learn more and more.

8. WH-clefts can create a drumroll effect, with new information coming at the end.
What they failed to acknowledge was the power of grammar.
Of course, there’s the option to switch that around:
The power of grammar is what they failed to acknowledge.

9. ALL-clefts similarly allows us to emphasize new information by setting it off. As Mariah Carrey sings every December, “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”

10. “Very” can come before a noun for emphasis:
The very fact that we’re compiling such a list reveals our appreciation of and passion for grammar!




Featured image by Monoar Rahman Rony from Pixabay

Related posts:
3 Common Mistakes with the Pronoun IT (2017)
IT clefts handout (2017)
Fronting: Learn from a master we can (2014)
What the World Needs Now: Practice with wh-clauses as subjects (2013)
What the Word Needs Now – handout (2013)