Speaker A
Sian: Hi, Sian here for BBC Learning English. And today we're going to look at ways of giving emphasis.
Learn how to give emphasis in English using cleft sentences with examples and practice tips from BBC Learning English.
Key Takeaways
- Cleft sentences help emphasize important or new information in English.
- 'It' cleft sentences follow the pattern: It is/was + emphasized part + that + rest of sentence.
- Both 'that' and 'who' can be used to refer to people, but 'that' is more common.
- Cleft sentences are useful in both spoken and written English to clarify emphasis.
- Practice is essential to effectively use cleft sentences for emphasis.
What the video covers
- Introduction to giving emphasis in English using cleft sentences.
- Explanation of cleft sentences as a way to highlight important or new information.
- Examples using the sentence 'Rob ate my biscuits yesterday' with different emphases.
- Detailed breakdown of the 'it' cleft structure: 'It is/was + key information + that + rest of sentence.'
- Use of 'who' vs 'that' when emphasizing people in cleft sentences.
- Present tense examples and variations including questions and negatives.
- Formal vs informal usage of pronouns in cleft sentences.
- Importance of stressing key information when speaking and writing.
- Additional examples to illustrate emphasis on different parts of a sentence.
- Encouragement to practice and visit the BBC Learning English website for more resources.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to giving emphasis
- 00:12What is a cleft sentence?
- 00:32Example sentence and different emphases
- 00:59Using the 'it' cleft structure
- 02:00Emphasizing people and things with 'who' and 'that'
- 02:20Present tense and question/negative forms
- 03:10Formal vs informal pronoun usage
- 03:51Importance of stress and practice
- 04:28Conclusion and practice resources
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
OK, so one way of giving emphasis is by using a cleft sentence. What's that? Well, basically a cleft sentence is a way of cutting a sentence in half so that you can give emphasis to the important or new information. It tells the listener or reader what information they need
Speaker A
to pay attention to. Let's have an example: Rob ate my biscuits yesterday. Voice: Ah, so Catherine ate your biscuits yesterday.
Speaker A
It was Rob that ate my biscuits. Voice: I hear Rob ate your lunch. No, it was my biscuits that Rob ate yesterday.
Speaker A
Voice: I can't believe Rob ate your biscuits this morning. It was yesterday that Rob ate my biscuits.
Speaker A
OK, so I said the same sentence in three different ways but each time, the emphasis changed.
Speaker A
I did this by using an 'it' cleft. Let's have a look in more detail.
Speaker A
So we have it is or it was - so here's our 'it' cleft - followed by the key information we want to emphasise, followed by that and then the rest of the message.
Speaker A
So, let's look at the examples we had. Here we want to emphasise Rob. So, "It was Rob that ate my biscuits," not Catherine. Here, because it's a person, we can also use 'who', although 'that' is more common. Now, I want to emphasise that it was biscuits,
Speaker A
not lunch. So, "It was my biscuits that Rob ate, not my lunch." Notice this is plural but we still use 'was' not 'were' here. And then finally, I want to emphasise that it was yesterday. So, "It was yesterday that Rob ate my biscuits," not today.
Speaker A
Let's look at a few more examples. If we want to talk about the present, we use it is and the verb in the present. So, "It is me that does all the work." We can also put this structure into the question form. So, "Was it you that told him?"
Speaker A
And we can make it negative. "It wasn't me that told him." This last sentence, we could also use 'I' instead of 'me', but this is much more formal. So, "It wasn't I who told him." So, that was your introduction to the 'it'
Speaker A
cleft. Now, these structures are really useful in writing because when we're writing, we can't stress or give intonation, so it helps to emphasise key information. They're also common when we're speaking. But you have to remember to stress the key information.
Speaker A
So, for example, "It was his smile that I first noticed." Or, "It was only a year ago that we met." Now, it's practice that you really need. So, go to our website - bbclearningenglish.com - for more information and to practise these structures. Goodbye!
Topics:cleft sentencesEnglish grammaremphasis in EnglishBBC Learning EnglishEnglish speakingEnglish writinggrammar lessonEnglish practiceit cleftsentence structure
