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

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 gonna tell you all about it. But I'm gonna

give you two versions of this story. Version number one will have normal sentence structure.

Then version number 2 - I'm gonna 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.

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.

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!

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

What + understood information + is/was + the information that I wanted to emphasise

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 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."

To emphasise a verb, I use this structure:

What/All + subject + do/does/did + is/was + the verb we want to emphasise

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."

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

What happens/happened + is/was + the clause that we want to emphasise

For example, I started my story with, "What happened was we got to the hotel and realised

that our room had been double booked.

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."

So go back, watch the video again and practise copying the sentences with stress. Now, what

you need now is practice. So go to our website bbclearningenglish.com to practise the structure.

Goodbye!