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Accent tonique
There’s no word stress in French (see rhythm lesson), so you have two options for emphasizing a particular word. One has to do with pronunciation (affective accent) and the other is grammatical: the tonic accent.
The French tonic accent has a few different forms. The bolding indicates the word that would be stressed in English.
1) Repetition
Put the important word at the beginning or end of the sentence, and also refer to it with a pronoun within the sentence.
Par exemple…
| Instead of saying | ||
| Je ne connais pas Anne. | I don’t know Anne. | |
| say | ||
| Anne, je ne la connais pas. or Je ne la connais pas, Anne. |
I don’t know Anne. | |
| Rather than | ||
| Ce n’est pas bon. | That’s no good. | |
| try | ||
| Ça, ce n’est pas bon. or Ce n’est pas bon, ça. |
That‘s no good. | |
| In place of | ||
| Je l’ai fait. | I did it. | |
| insist | ||
| Moi, je l’ai fait. or Je l’ai fait, moi. |
I did it. | |
2) C’est … que/qui
Put the emphasized word between c’est and the relative pronoun que or qui (depending on whether it’s the subject or object of the verb).
| Instead of saying | ||
| Je ne connais pas Anne. | I don’t know Anne. | |
| say | ||
| C’est Anne que je ne connais pas. | I don’t know Anne. | |
| Rather than | ||
| La pomme n’est pas bonne. | The apple is no good. | |
| try | ||
| C’est la pomme qui n’est pas bonne. | The apple is no good. | |
| In place of | ||
| Je l’ai fait. | I did it. | |
| insist | ||
| C’est moi qui l’ai fait.* | I did it. | |
*Lesson on why it’s ai rather than a coming soon.
3) Supertonic accent
Use both of the above for even more emphasis.
| Anne, c’est elle que je ne connais pas. | Anne, she’s the one I don’t know. | |
| La pomme, c’est ça qui n’est pas bonne. | The apple, that’s what’s no good. | |
| C’est moi qui l’ai fait, moi ! | Really, I did it! |
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