English has two emphatic tense forms that emphasize actions or states happening in the present and those that occurred in the past.
Before discussing them, however, we must strongly keep in mind that two often-used variants of these forms are used in sentence constructions where emphasis is not intended. The first variant works with the adverb “not” in negative sentences, and the second variant forms the interrogative mode by inverting the normal sentence construction to form a question. We must fully understand this distinction to avoid mistakes in using the emphatic tenses.
IMAGE CREDIT: SLIDEPLAYER.COMNow let’s take up the
present emphatic tense. To more forcefully express an action or state, this form puts the present-tense verb “do” or “does” ahead of the basic present-tense of the action verb, as in “I
do like apples.” “She
does think fast,” and “They
do act slowly.” In contrast, to form a negative sentence with no intent to emphasize, “do not” or “does not” is placed right before the action verb, as in “The group
does not agree”; and to form a question not intended to emphasize, “do” or “does” is used, as in “
Does the jury have a verdict?”
In the
past emphatic tense, the past-tense “did” is placed ahead of the basic present-tense form of the action verb to more forcefully express it, as in “I
did write that letter,” “She
did come as expected,” and “They
did pay on schedule.” When emphasis is not intended, however, the negative past-tense “did not” or “didn’t” is used ahead of the basic present-tense form of the action verb, as in “He
did not deliver as promised” and, in question form, “
Didn’t you finish the work last night?”
Sentences that use the emphatic tenses are either affirmative or negative responses to an apparently persistent question, whether stated or only implied. See what happens when this question is asked: “Did you really write that letter?” The emphatic answer would either be “I
did write that letter” or “
No, I
didn’t write that letter.” This is the situational context for using the emphatic forms. It conveys the sense of the speaker either explicitly owning or denying an act, or claiming to be correct in his or her belief regarding the action of others.
Another device for emphasis in English, one that’s often misunderstood and often maligned, is the
inverted sentence. This grammatical form, in which the verb comes ahead of the subject, does present agreement problems and possible confusion when used too often. Here’s an example from Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”:
“Away from light steals home my heavy son /And private in his chamber pens himself...”Note that the verb “away” that starts the sentence, with the subject “son” far detached from it. The normal-order sentence would go as follows: “My heavy son steals home
away from light...” A heightened emotional state can be felt in the first, a dry forthrightness in the second. That difference comes from the change in the form, order, and rhythm of the language itself.
It is, of course, not only in poetry where inverted sentences find excellent use. They can give prose much-welcome variety and punch when used judiciously in a sea of normal-order sentences. Feel the emotional difference between the following normal-order sentence and its corresponding inverted sentence: (1) “Her behavior could be explained
in no other way.” “
In no other way could her behavior be explained.”
When using inverted sentences, we must make an extra effort to double-check agreement of the verb with the subject. This subject always follows the number of the verb and not of the nouns or pronouns that come before it: “In the grassy plains
lives the last antelope.” It’s often construed that the singular verb “lives” should be the plural “live” instead to agree with “grassy plains,” but this proves not to be the case; the true subject is not “the grassy plains” but the singular “the last antelope.”
Read this column and listen to its voice recording in
The Manila Times:
The empathic forms and inverted sentencesThis essay, 2148th of the series, appears in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Campus Press section of the April 26, 2023 digital edition of The Manila Times
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(Next:
In defense of the passive voice) April 27, 2023
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