Scribd
Upload
949 views3 pages

Emphatic Sentences

The document discusses various grammatical structures in English including: 1. Emphatic sentences, participle clauses, and subject-verb inversions. 2. Cleft sentences that use "it" to emphasize subjects, objects, or adverbials through the use of "it was" clauses. 3. Wh-cleft sentences that highlight the action of a sentence by placing a form of "do" before "be" and an infinitive verb. 4. Fronting structures used in spoken English to contrast elements by placing them at the start of the sentence.

Uploaded by

juan ojeda
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
949 views3 pages

Emphatic Sentences

The document discusses various grammatical structures in English including: 1. Emphatic sentences, participle clauses, and subject-verb inversions. 2. Cleft sentences that use "it" to emphasize subjects, objects, or adverbials through the use of "it was" clauses. 3. Wh-cleft sentences that highlight the action of a sentence by placing a form of "do" before "be" and an infinitive verb. 4. Fronting structures used in spoken English to contrast elements by placing them at the start of the sentence.

Uploaded by

juan ojeda
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Emphatic sentence

Participle clauses  “Putting on his jacket, John Left out”

Inversions

 After some preposition phrase:

- Inversion of verb + subject  Here comes the Queen

 After negative adverbs:

- Inversion: auxiliary + subject + verb  Not only did I…

 After negative adverbial clauses

- Only after  I saw the bus, did I go out my house

- Only when

- Only if

- Only until

Cleft (Emphasis/ Explanation/ Contrast)

- It clause

- Wh clause

- Related expressions

It cleft sentences

It + a form of BE (+ not and/or adverb) + emphasized word/phrase + that/which/who clause

Example: “It isn´t just her beauty what attracts me”

We use It sentences to emphazise:

- The subject

- The object

- The adverbial

Example: “Susan gave John some money yesterday”


- It was Susan who gave John some money yesterday (Subject)

- It was John that Susan gave some money yesterday (Object)

- It was money that Susan gave John yesterday (Object)

- It was yesterday that Susan gave John the money (Adverb)

*Informally we can use: Where/when  “It was yesterday when…” (we CAN´T use how/why)

Wh-cleft sentence: we use it to highlight the action of the sentence

Wh-clause (contains a form of DO) + a form of BE + bare infinitive

Example: “What Susan did was give John some money yesterday”

- Highlighted verb in continuous

“What Susan is doing is giving John some money”

- Highlighted verb in perfect

“What Susan has done is given John some money”

Fronting: in spoken English (mainly) To make a contrast with something in the previous

statement

 Normal sentence: “She may be friendly but she isn’t reliable”

- Fronting the object  “Friendly she may be, but reliable she isn’t”

 Normal sentence: “I disagree with”

- Fronting  “That I disagree with”

Elements that are fronting include:

 Prepositional phrases

- Normal sentence “A few couples stood chatting at the back of the room”

- Fronting  “At the back of the room stood a few couples chatting

 Comparative adjectives
- Normal sentence  “The salmon was good, but the dessert that followed was even

better”

- Fronting  “The salmon was good, but even better was the dessert that followed it”

 Objects

- Normal sentence  “He downed some whisky immediately”

- Fronting  “He bought some whisky and beer - Whisky he downed immediately ”

 Noun clauses (Wh-clauses/that clauses/infinitive-clauses)

- Normal sentence  “It was obvious that she had been swimming”

- Fronting  “That she had been swimming was obvious”

You might also like