The Person Who, The Thing That | Words Used To Emphasise

by Manjusha Nambiar · March 23, 2020

Emphasizing words using the structures the person who, the thing that etc.

Study the following sentence.

This sentence doesn’t put an emphasis on any part. Now we can rewrite this sentence putting the emphasis on Rani.

Rani is the person who keeps a goat in the garden shed. OR The person who keeps a goat in the garden shed is Rani.

Both of these sentences put an emphasis on the noun Rani.

Now we can put the emphasis on the goat.

Now we can put the emphasis on the phrase ‘the garden shed’.

More examples are given below.

Mira works at a bank.
Mira is the person who works at a bank. / The person who works at a bank is Mira. (Emphasis on Mira.)
A bank is the place where Mira works. / The place where Mira works is a bank. (Emphasis on a bank.)
Karan put a book on the table.
Karan was the person who put a book on the table. / The person who put a book on the table was Karan.
A book was what Karan put on the table.
What Karan put on the table was a book.
The table was the place where Karan put a book.
The place where Karan put a book was the table.

Emphasizing verbs

To emphasize a verb, we use a structure with what…do.

Study the following sentence.

My mother bought me a Barbie doll yesterday.
It was my mother who / that bought me a Barbie doll yesterday. (Emphasis on my mother)
It was a Barbie doll that my mother bought me yesterday. (Emphasis on Barbie doll)
It was yesterday that my mother bought me a Barbie doll. (Emphasis on yesterday.)
Shiva won the gold medal in the 100m race.
It was Shiva who / that won the gold medal in the 100m race.
It was the gold medal that Shiva won in the 100m race.

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