Emphasize

Question

what does emphasize and emphasis means? these two words are used often. but i don't understand it. can someone give me an example and explain what it mean as well. thanks

Melanie · Accepted Answer

oh, and please correct me if i have written any wrong grammars in the above message.

Miriam · Answer

Hello, Melanie

"Emphasize" (BrE "emphasise") is a verb; "emphasis" is a noun. The noun is usually followed by the prepositions "on" or "upon".

Directly from the dictionary:
- Emphasis: special force, stress or attention given to something to show that it is particularly important. The plural is "emphases".
"Our English course puts great emphasis on conversational skills."
"'You are not coming, are you?', he said, with emphasis on 'you are'." (=he said these words slowly and loudly)
"The new economic policy places greater emphasis on reducing inflation."
"You can write that phrase in bold type for emphasis."

- Emphasise: to place emphasis on.
"I'd like to emphasise (=to make this point very clearly) that we're ready to meet the management at any time."
"He thumped the table with his hand to emphasise what he was saying."

Miriam · Answer

I've just seen your post asking for correction.
Your post can be rewritten as:

"What do emphasize and emphasis mean?
These two words are used often but I don't understand them. Can someone (anyone) give me examples and explain what they mean as well? Thanks.

Remember to start your sentences with a capital letter.

Melanie · Answer

Okay, now it make sense. thank you Miriam.

"can someone give me an example and explain what it mean as well."
should the "mean" have an s (means)?

Miriam · Answer

Melanie,
You can ask for
"an example and what it means"
or
"examples (more than one) and what they mean"

In your post, I chose the plural (examples) because you asked about two words, so you would need at least one example of each.

Melanie · Answer

But when you add an s it means plural, then if I use examples then how come the mean has no s. shouldn't it have an s too.

hope you don't mind me asking too many questions.

Miriam · Answer

Of course I don't mind your asking

I don't know what your first language is, but in my country, Spanish speakers find it difficult too to understand that the "s" is necessary to form the simple present of a verb for the 3rd. person singular. The reason is that we associate the addition of an "s" at the end of a word only with plural forms.

In English, most nouns add an "s" to form the plural:
example (singular) --- examples (plural)
Some nouns add "es", and there are several irregular plurals.

Now, the "s" you may add to the word "mean" is not the same "s" that you add to a nounn in order to from the plural.
You intended to use the verb "mean" in the simple present in your post. Now, the rule for forming the present simple of verbs in English is the following:
You use the base form of the verb (that is, the infinitive, the verb as it appears in a dictionary entry) for all the persons but the third person singular, for which you have to add an "s" (or "es") to the verb. To form the negative and the interrogative, you need the auxiliary "do" for all persons except the third person singular, which uses "does".
The exceptions to this rule are the verb "to be", which is the most irregular of the English verbs, and the modal verbs (can, could, may, might, should, will, would, etc).
The verb "mean" in the simple present would be:
I mean
you mean
he, she, it means
we mean
you mean
they mean

In the case of verbs, the addition of the "s" does not mean pluralisation.

Other examples of the simple present:

"I go to school."
"He goes to school."

"My sister and I like icecream."
"Susan likes icecream."

"I speak English."
"You speak English."
"She speaks English."
"The boys speak English."
"We all speak English."

"The word 'easy' means 'not difficult'."
"What does this word mean?"
"What do these words mean?"

Let me know if you still find it confusing?

Emphasize

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