Grammar: Using 'what' to give emphasis - BBC English Masterclass

Improve your English grammar with the BBC. Use the word 'what' in English to emphasise something you want to say! 'What' we want to say is:Watch this free online English lesson to find out how to use 'what' for emphasis.

More in this series:
Giving emphasis in English:

Native English speaker 'mistakes'

Linking words of contrast:

How to mix conditionals:

Verb patterns: 'stop buying' or 'stop to buy'?

#learnenglish #bbcmasterclass #emphasis

Transcript:
Hi, Sian here for BBC Learning English. In this video, we're going to look at some more ways to give emphasis.

Now, I've just got back from holiday and I'm going to tell you all about it. But I'm going to give you two versions of this story. Version number one will have normal sentence structure. Then version number 2 - I'm going to add more emphasis. I'll do this by adding cleft sentences with 'what'. Listen carefully to the two versions of the story. How are they different? We'll find out afterwards.

Version one: normal sentence structure

I had the worst holiday. We got to our hotel and realised that our room had been double booked, so they moved us to a different hotel in a different town. It was horrible, noisy and dirty and there were insects everywhere. And the bathroom was awful. I touched the shower and it exploded and flooded the room.

I went to complain to the manager and he offered us another week there for free. I need a real holiday.

Version two – emphasis using 'what'

I had the worst holiday. So what happened was we got to the hotel and realised that our room had been double booked, so what they did was move us to another hotel in another town. It was horrible, noisy and dirty, but what I hated most was the insects everywhere. And in the bathroom, all I did was touch the shower and it exploded, flooding the room. I went to complain to the manager and what he did was offer us another week there for free! What I need now is a holiday!

How to emphasise the noun

OK, so when I emphasise nouns, I use this structure:

What + understood information + is was + emphasis

So, for example, instead of "I hated the insects," in the second version I said, "What I hated most was the insects everywhere."

Notice that even though it's plural, we use – normally use – 'was' here because we're saying 'the thing that I hated most was the insects everywhere.'

Again, instead of "I need a holiday," to emphasise, I said, "What I need now is a holiday."

Finally, you can also replace 'what' with 'all' meaning 'the only thing'. For example in the famous song, "All I want for Christmas is You."

How to emphasise the verb

To emphasise a verb, I use this structure:

What/All + subject + do/does/did + is/was + verb

So, instead of saying, "They moved us to another town," I said, "What they did was move us to another town." So that highlights the verb. Again, we can use 'all' instead of 'what' to say 'the only thing.' So for example, "I touched the shower and it broke," I emphasise using, "All I did was touch the shower and it broke."

How to emphasise the whole sentence

Finally, to emphasise the whole sentence, we can use this structure:

What happens/happened + is/was + clause

For example, I started my story with, "What happened was we got to the hotel and realised that our room had been double booked.

Useful when writing and speaking. But remember to use STRESS when speaking.

OK, so this structure is really useful when you're writing because when we're writing, we can't stress or give intonation. It's also used a lot when we're speaking. But remember to stress the key information. So not, "What I need now is a holiday," but, "What I NEED now is a HOLIDAY."

[GabrielyDacas]

All I need now is keep practicing to improve my English skills

[Marychebaa]

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Watching them daily is just so simple and useful that it can easily replace any TV shows at all))
So, what I gonna do now is go to your website and practice)
Thanks for the motivation))

Mariia from Russia)

[QuynhNhu-nflq]

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[ShiharaWijesinghe]

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[mahyaaliasgari]

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[mohsenbagheri]

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[nordinesalmi]

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You're amazing
I love the way you explain things

[IagoSilva]

What I like about this video, is that I can use it in class.

[muhammadandrialfian]

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[ГеннадийПолухин-бч]

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[syfa]

What i liked most was the dresses.
All i want in this world is peace.
What i need now is some rest....
All they did was give us some advices.
What he did was move to the next room....
What happened was he couldn't control the speed of the vehicle & met with an accident.

[karolinellanos]

What I need is get a good great grade in the final exam. 😢😢

[vascoambrosio]

If only we had exercises on each topic it would be great

[ivanoov]

what i do is learn how to emphasize the sentences

[emell]

i'd like to give you some emphasis

[artofrepetition]

All I did was touch the shower.
I wonder why in this sentences there're two verbs, was and touch?

[AnhNguyen-ygzu]

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[tuankbgl]

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[honeyhadid]

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