Highlighting and emphasis 213- immediately after the verb, e.g. Je ne travaille pas, moi, le dimanche
- at the end of the sentence, e.g. Il n’est pas bête, lui!
c As is apparent from the previous example, the final position in a sentence has its own
emphatic potential, and may be used instead of the initial position to highlight a focal
element.
e.g. Elle est morte, sa mère; Il l’a fini, son article; Il en a pas mal, des boutons
This construction is particularly characteristic of the spoken language.
d When using initial positioning and the so-called reprise construction (as outlined in
Highlighting and emphasis in the texts,2b, above), you must take care with prepositional
usage, remembering to use the pronoun y when the preposition à is involved and the pronoun
en when de is involved (see Chapter 10).
e.g. Revoir ses parents, elle y tient beaucoup (tenir + à); Aller en Amérique, j’en rêve souvent
(rêver + de)
e You must also remember in careful writing and speech that when certain adverbs are placed at
the beginning of a sentence, the subject and verb are inverted. These adverbs include: aussi
(= thus, therefore); à peine; peut-être; sans doute (see Chapter 30).
e.g. Peut-être l’a-t-il oublié; Sans doute est-elle partie
f It should be noted that the framing device c’est... que is often used to highlight an
adverb/adverbial phrase.
e.g. C’est à Paris que je l’ai vu; C’est devant tout le monde qu’elle l’a dit
g When the introductory device ce qui/ce que ... c’est is used for highlighting, you should note
that the verb which follows c’ may be in a tense other than the present.
e.g. Ce qui l’embêtait, c’était son égoïsme
h Voici/voilà may be used in a variety of ways in order to highlight particular elements of a
sentence, e.g.
- preceded by a pronoun: Le voici qui arrive
- followed by que/qu’ to introduce a clause: Voilà qu’elle nous attend
- followed by noun + relative clause: Voici notre bus qui arrive
- together with ce qui/ce que/ce dont: Voilà ce qui m’inquiète; Voici ce que je cherchais
This construction voici/voilà + ce qui/ce que/ce dont may also be used together with initial
positioning of the focal element, e.g. L’algèbre, voilà ce qu’il n’arrivera jamais à comprendre as
an alternative to Ce qu’il n’arrivera jamais à comprendre, c’est l’algèbre.
See also Chapter 1 for the use of voilà (and also il y a/ça fait) to highlight an expression of
time.
e.g. Voilà trois ans qu’il travaille ici.
i Finally, you should not forget that a passive construction (see Chapter 21) may be used to
remove all reference to the performer of an action and/or to highlight the action instead.
Compare for example the passive: Le verre a été cassé with the active: J’ai cassé le verre.