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Hi, my name's Marie.
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welcome to Oxford Online English!
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In this video, we're going to show you how to add emphasis while speaking English.
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But what does it mean to add emphasis?
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Adding emphasis is a way to show your listener that certain words or ideas are more important.
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In this lesson, you'll see how to use different pronunciation features and grammar structures
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to add emphasis to your spoken or written English.
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Another thing: don't forget to turn on subtitles if you need them!
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This video has English subtitles; click the 'CC' button on the video player to turn
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them on.
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On your mobile phone, use the settings icon.
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Let's start with one of the most common ways to add emphasis to an idea.
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What time is John flying to Paris tomorrow?
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He isn't flying to Paris *tomorrow.* Did you hear the stressed word?
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Which one was it?
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Hopefully, you heard that 'tomorrow', was stressed.
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Why do you think this is?
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Before we answer that question, let's have a look at three more examples.
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Listen for the stressed words and think about what the stress means.
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What time is John flying to Paris tomorrow?
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He isn't *flying* to Paris tomorrow.
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What time is John flying to Paris tomorrow?
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*He* isn't flying to Paris tomorrow.
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What time is John flying to Paris tomorrow?
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He isn't flying to Paris tomorrow.
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In the first sentence, 'flying' was stressed.
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In the second, 'he' was stressed.
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And the third?
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There were no stressed words!
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Trick question.
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When you stress one word, you show that this idea is more important.
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Often, you do this to show contrast with an opposite idea, or to disagree with someone.
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In the first sentence, adding stress to 'flying' means that he is going to Paris
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tomorrow, but that he isn't going by plane.
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Maybe he's taking the Eurostar train
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or driving.
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What about the second sentence?
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What does it mean if you stress the word 'he'?
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This suggests that other people we know are flying to Paris tomorrow, but
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'*he'* isn't.
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What about our first example?
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What does it mean if you stress the word 'tomorrow'?
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Think about it.
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Adding stress to 'tomorrow' means he is flying to Paris, but not tomorrow.
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Maybe he's flying today, or the day after tomorrow.
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Adding word stress is a simple way to add emphasis to your idea.
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This is especially useful when you want to correct someone, or disagree with somebody
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else.
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So, what did you think of the movie?
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Amazing!
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It was so tense!
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Yeah, I saw you jump so many times!
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I know!
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*Never* have I been so scared.
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That basement scene was so frightening, I could hardly watch.
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And the ending!
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What a twist!
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At no point did I see that coming.
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What was the director's name again?
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Maria Thornby, I think.
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Not only did she direct it, but she also wrote and starred in it too!
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She's one to watch, then.
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Look at two sentences.
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You heard one of these in the dialogue.
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Do you remember which?
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You heard number two.
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Next question: what's the difference between these two sentences?
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The structure in sentence two is called an inversion.
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This is another way to add emphasis to your ideas.
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When you make an inversion, you do two things: first, you start the sentence with an adverb,
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like 'never', 'only', 'not only' or 'at no point'.
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The adverb can be a single word or a phrase.
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Secondly, you put an auxiliary verb before the main verb.
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You can make inversions in different verb tenses.
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For example, look at four sentences.
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Can you say what verb tenses they are?
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Could you do it?
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Pause the video if you want more time to think.
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Sentence one is past perfect.
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Two is present simple.
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Three is future, with 'will', and four is past simple.
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Inversions like this are more common written English,
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but you might hear them in conversations, too.
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Like all emphasis, you shouldn't overuse them.
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You're not coming to the party tonight, right?
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I *am* coming!
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Why would you think I wasn't?
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Well, last time we went to their place, you were in a terrible mood.
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It didn't look like you were enjoying yourself at all.
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Well, I was quite tired, but I *did* have a good time.
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OK, well that's good.
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I *do* hope you're bringing Michelle with you, too?
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I haven't seen her for ages.
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Yes, she'll be there.
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Is she going to make her orange cake again?
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That was the best!
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I'll ask her.
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She *does* make the best cakes.
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In the dialogue, you heard four examples of adding emphasis by stressing an auxiliary verb.
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Can you remember the sentences you heard?
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Which auxiliary verb did they use?
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You heard these four sentences.
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One of these four is different from the others.
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Can you see which sentence is different, and why?
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The sentence 'I *am* coming' is different.
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It's different because in the other three sentences, you add an auxiliary verb for emphasis:
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'do', 'does' or 'did'.
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Here, there's already an auxiliary verb – 'am' – and you simply pronounce
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it with more stress.
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If you have a sentence in the present simple or past simple, and you want to add emphasis,
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with most verbs you can add an auxiliary verb 'do', 'does' or 'did' to make
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your idea sound stronger.
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You need to pronounce the auxiliary verb with stress, too.
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Don't say 'I did have a good time'.
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Say 'I *did* have a good time.
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In other verb tenses, there is already an auxiliary verb.
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For example: 'I am going to tell her.'
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'They can speak Italian.'
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'You have grown a lot.'
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To add emphasis to sentences like these, simply pronounce the auxiliary verb with stress,
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like this: 'I *am* going to tell him.'
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'They *can* speak Italian.'
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'You *have* grown a lot.'
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Now, let's look at one more way you can add emphasis when you speak.
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Olivier, can you come downstairs, please?
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What's happened?
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Look in the living room.
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Did you break the TV?
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I didn't break the TV!
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Well, what happened then?
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It was the dog who did it!
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He ran through the living room chasing the cat and got caught on the wires.
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OK, sorry, my mistake.
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Look at a sentence you heard.
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Here's a question: why say it like this?
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Why not just say 'The dog did it'?
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You can probably guess the answer: saying it this way adds emphasis.
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But, do you know what this sentence structure is called?
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It's called a cleft sentence, also known as a focusing sentence.
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'Cleft' has a similar meaning to 'split' or 'divided'.
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In the sentence we used – 'It was the dog who did it' – you can see that the
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sentence is in two parts.
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The first, 'it was the dog' and the second 'who broke the TV'.
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A cleft sentence will always have at least two verbs: one in the first part, and one
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in the second.
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Cleft sentences often start with the word 'it', but they can also start in different
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ways.
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You can also start a cleft sentence with 'what' plus a clause.
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For example 'what I hate most about living here is the dark winters.'
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'What I need right now is a good long holiday.'
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'What I'd like to do is put this aside and think about it again after a good night's
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sleep.'
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It's also possible to make cleft sentences starting with 'all', 'something' or
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'one thing'.
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For example 'All I want is to lie down.
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I feel terrible!'
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'Something you should think about is choosing the words you use more carefully.'
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In the last sentence, you could also use 'one thing', which is interchangeable with 'something'.
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There are other ways to form cleft sentences, but these are the most common.
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All these sentences follow the same pattern; they're divided into two parts, with at
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least one verb in each part.
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Thanks for watching.
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See you next time!