An emphatic expression is one that is said with emphasis and stress to indicate importance. This type of expression is used to show you have strong feelings about what you are saying. Often emphatic expressions that are written have an exclamation point (!) at the end of the sentence. While spoken emphatic phrases have stress on the word that is used to emphasize or intensify your feelings.
Creating an emphatic expression involves adding an adverb intensifier to your existing sentence or expression to make your feelings even stronger. In an emphatic phrase the adverb intensifier is always added before the verb. The most common emphatic intensifiers in English (in my opinion) are “really” and “very much.” I am sure you have heard people use these words frequently, in fact I used one in the title of this post.
There are a number of useful emphatic intensifiers that would be good for you to know. I have listed some of the most common of these below. Following this list are a group of sentences with blanks where you can practice filling in different emphatic emphasizers to make your own emphatic phrases. Any of the words from the list can be put into any of the blanks in the sentences below. It is personal choice which emphasizers you use, which is why it might be fun to try out using these different intensifiers in the different sentences below and see which ones you like best. Also, listen for how others, particularly native English speakers, use these words to help emphasize their point. This may help you decide which intensifying adverbs you like the best.
List:
- deeply – strongly, with much feeling
- fully – completely, without any doubt
- positively – without any doubt
- really – strongly
- sincerely – with my best wishes in mind
- strongly – with conviction
- totally – without any doubt
- utterly – without any doubt
- very much* – strongly
*Directly emphasizing a verb with the adverb ‘very’ requires also using the word ‘much’ not just the word ‘very’ by itself. The word ‘very’ by itself is used to emphasize other adverbs or adjectives. For example: I very much doubt he ate the pizza. vs. He ate a very big pizza.
Practice sentences:
We _______ deny any wrongdoing.
I _______ regret my decision now.
We _______ appreciate all of your help.
He ________believes he is right regardless of what evidence we provide him with to the contrary.
We’d like to _______ encourage you to apply for the job.
My company _______ supports working from home.
They _______ reject any compromise in the negotiations.
By Gabriele in English Grammar.