c1.2 - Unit 6 - Grammar
c1.2 - Unit 6 - Grammar
c1.2 - Unit 6 - Grammar
2 - UNIT 6
GRAMMAR
EMPHASIS
There are several ways to emphasise in English in order to give strong advice,
express our opinions firmly, show disagreement, concern, etc. In other levels, you
studied that we can add the verb ‘do’, for example, to emphasise.
FRONTING
They had been seeing each other for For some time they had been seeing
some time before anyone found out → each other before anyone found out
about it. about it. (Fronting of the adverbial)
‘Fronting’ involves moving parts of a sentence to the front in order to start with the
most important information, give an emphatic contrast with the previous sentence
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and provide a link with what came before by putting known information at the front of
the sentence.
When the fronting involves a prepositional phrase (on the corner, in front of me, etc.)
we often change the order of the subject and the verb.
However, we don’t invert the subject and verb if the subject is a pronoun or
with time phrases:
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● no sooner … than
● not since, not for, not a (person / thing), not only… (but also)
Only when we had that coffee together did I realise I didn’t love him anymore.
● so, neither, nor (when they are used to make a short, inverted response to
agree with somebody)
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‘I really love a good curry.’
o do I.’
‘S
o do I.’
‘Jonathan normally goes shopping for clothes in London and s
We can also emphasise a particular part of a sentence with so, such or time
sequence adverbs. Let’s take a look at them.
So impressive was her speech that she will repeat it again.
Such was her disappointment t hat the boss didn’t give him another chance.
● time sequence adverbs such as: first, then, next, now, etc. + be or come
And then came a group of people to complain about the flight delay.
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INVERSION - ‘AS’ AND ‘THAN’ IN COMPARISONS
We can also use inversion with as and than in comparisons in formal written
language.
The dress was beautiful, as was the handbag. (Or … as the handbag was.)
People say that women study more t han do men. (Or … than men do.)
CLEFT SENTENCES
A cleft sentence is a sentence in which focus is given to either the subject or object
using a pattern beginning ‘It …’ or ‘What …
‘. Let’s take a look at these examples.
● ‘It +
is/was + emphasised part + relative clause’
It was by changing his bank details t hat he could receive the money. (Not *It was by
changing his bank details how he could… )
It was in this bar that I met your father. (‘It was in this bar w
here I met your father’
would be more informal.)
○ This is the most frequent structure, and sometimes we use all instead
of what.
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What I need i s taking a break.
subject
○ To emphasise an action we can also use this structure: ‘what +
+ do + be + (to) + infinitive.’