ADDING ENPHASIS

CLEFT SENTENCES
Ways of Adding Emphasis
I. Cleft Sentences
If we want to give special importance to one part of a sentence,
we can put it into a separate clause. There are two common
ways of doing this.

One is to use the structure It is/was ... that ...;
the other is to use What . . . is/was ....

Compare:
Harry told the police. ----It was Harry that told the police.
I need a beer. -----What I need is a beer.
The sentence with It gives special importance to Harry; the
sentence with What emphasizes a beer.
Sentences like these are called 'cleft sentences' by grammarians
(cleft means 'divided').
A Cleft sentences with It is/was ... that ...
This structure can be used to emphasize almost any part of the
sentence.
Compare:
My mother threw an egg at the Minister of Education
yesterday.
It was my mother that threw an egg at the Minister of
Education yesterday.
It was an egg that my mother threw at the Minister of
Education yesterday.
It was yesterday that my mother threw an egg at the Minister
of Education.
It was the Minister of Education that my mother threw an egg
at yesterday.
Notes
The verb cannot be emphasized in this way: you
cannot say *It was threw that ...
When the subject is emphasized, who (referring to a
person) is possible instead of that.
It was my mother who threw...
When the emphasized subject is a pronoun, there is a
choice between subject forms (I, me, etc) and object-
forms (me, him, etc).
It was I who ... It was me that ...Object forms are more
common in informal English.
Cleft sentences with What ... is/was ...
This structure is used to emphasize the subject or object.
Compare:
My left leg hurts. ----What hurts is my left leg.
I like her style. ----What I like is her style.
Who (m) cannot be used in this way for person subjects
or objects. You cannot say, for instance,
*Who telephoned was my uncle.
Negative Adverbial or Only/'No Expression +
Auxiliary or Modal Verb + Subject + Main Verb +
Object
3) Never had we heard such a fasicnating story
Despite using the past perfect in sentence3), this formula
remains reliable with the present tense also. For example:
4) Rarely will I eat chocolate during the week
5) Under no circumstances should you leave your
children unsupervised
Other Negative Adverbials include: rarely, not since,
hardly, never before, not until, little, at no time etc.
No/Only Expressions include: under no circumstances,
not only, no sooner, in no way, only when etc.

Restructure the following statements to make them more emphatic.
a. We doubt his sincerity.
____________________________________________________
b. I admire the efficiency of the Swiss.
____________________________________________________
c. She hates having to get up at 6 o'clock every morning.
____________________________________________________
d. His approval of the scheme is important.
____________________________________________________
e. Their self-righteousness is annoying.
____________________________________________________
f. You should go to Spain for your holidays.
____________________________________________________
g. I like London because it has beautiful parks.
____________________________________________________
Join each of the following sentence-pairs using the way
or the fact, and beginning with What ...
a. He never makes a fuss. I admire this.
______________________________________________
b. She's always on time. I appreciate this.
______________________________________________
c. This government has treated the Health Service so
badly. This irritates everybody.
_____________________________________________
d. The Health Service wastes less money than it used to.
This is of no consequence.
______________________________________________
Work in pairs. Prepare to talk for one minute on one of the topics
below, or any other topic that you feel particularly strongly about.
Try to use some of these patterns for emphasis:
What really annoys me about ...
What is most surprising ...
It is the way some people ... that ...
What most people don't realize is the fact that ...
TOPICS
litter badly-behaved children smoking
the weather bad drivers learning English
politics people who wear fur coats
football teachers who set too much homework
exams