Emphasis: Cleft sentences, inversion and auxiliaries

Do you know how to add emphasis using cleft sentences, inversion, or auxiliaries? Enhance your knowledge with a lesson given below and the grammar explanation to guide you better.

Here are some examples showing how we use these structures:

• What she enjoys most about cooking is experimenting with new recipes.

• Not only did he finish the project early, but he also exceeded expectations!

• Believe it or not, I really do understand how to solve this problem.

Grammar explanation - Emphasis: cleft sentences, inversion and auxiliaries

We can use various grammatical structures to add emphasis, either to the whole sentence or to highlight a specific part of it.

1. Cleft sentences

Cleft sentences allow us to emphasise different parts of a sentence, depending on which part we want to highlight. They are usually introduced by it or by a clause beginning with what.

2. Cleft sentences beginning with it

Here’s a simple sentence with no special emphasis:

• You told me the news during lunch.

We can emphasise different parts of this sentence by "fronting" them, moving them to the front after it + be.

• It was you who told me the news during lunch. Emphasis: you (not someone else)

• It was during lunch that you told me the news. Emphasis: during lunch (not at another time)

• It was the news that you told me during lunch. Emphasis: the news (not something else)

3. Cleft sentences beginning with what

What clauses + be are common in spoken English and emphasise the part of the sentence outside the what clause.

• What I love most about hiking is the fresh air.

• What annoys me the most is when people interrupt while I’m speaking.

• What I discovered was that the more I practiced, the better I became.

This type of cleft sentence can also begin with where, why, who, how, etc.

• Why they left early is still a mystery.

We can also put the what clause at the end of the sentence.

• The thing I enjoyed the most was what we discussed afterward.

4. Inversion with negative adverbials

We can also use inversion to add emphasis. It gives a more formal or dramatic effect.

To invert a sentence, we place the adverbial (e.g., never, rarely, not only, etc.) at the beginning and change the position of the subject and auxiliary verb.

• Never have I seen such a beautiful sunset. (I have never seen such a beautiful sunset.)

If there is no auxiliary verb, we add one.

• Not only does she speak French, but she also speaks Spanish. (She not only speaks French but also speaks Spanish.)

5. Little, no sooner, and not

Other negative words and expressions used with inversion include little, no sooner, never, and not.

• Little did I know that the meeting had been cancelled. (I didn’t know that the meeting had been cancelled.)

• No sooner had we sat down than the movie started. (We had just sat down when the movie started.)

• Not a single word did he say during the entire conversation.

6. Emphatic auxiliaries

In spoken English, we often stress the auxiliary verb to add emphasis.

• A: Are you sure you're coming to the party?

• B: I am coming! Who said I wasn’t?

If there’s no auxiliary verb, we use do, does, or did to add emphasis. This works in both spoken and written English.

• A: I thought you didn't like the play. B: I did like it, actually!

• A: That’s why she seemed upset. B: That does explain a lot.

In British English, do can also be used to make a command more emphatic, often sounding formal.

• Do take a seat, please.

• Do try to be on time!

Try another grammar lesson