Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

---

Improve the rhythm of your English – instantly! Join me and learn how to emphasize *helping verbs* in sentences. This will make your message clearer and help you be understood. You can use this easy technique to correct, confirm, and strengthen any message. We’ll practice with verbs like *to be* and *to have,* as well as modal verbs like *could, should, must,* and more. As you hear and repeat the stronger, more powerful sentences, you’ll take your English to a higher level. engvid.com/speak-english-powerfully-emphasize-helping-verbs

Watch the new Speak English Powerfully lesson: youtu.be/TWx2PfmC9qE
Watch the whole *SPEAK ENGLISH POWERFULLY* course here: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxSz4mPLHWDbiMNmG2OLfe3RLcDAiWb73
Improve your English day by day with my course: 10.bexenglish.com

In this lesson:
0:00 Speak More Powerfully: Emphasize the Helping Verb
0:52 Emphasize the verb "to be"
2:04 Emphasize the verb "to have"
3:06 Emphasize modal verbs
5:17 Practice with me

Transcript:
Welcome back to our series on Speaking English Powerfully. It's not only about grammar and vocabulary, it's also about the rhythm of our language. And in this video, I'm going to show you another way, another simple way in which you can come across more clearly and confidently, and also others can understand you more easily. Alright? So, are you ready? Let's begin.

So, the technique we're learning today is to emphasize the helping verb. What do we mean by that? Let me show you. So, for example, these are regular sentences. Right now, nothing is emphasized, nothing is particularly powerful. Let's see what we can do to make it more effective and powerful. So, first, we're just going to read the sentence, okay? The first one, "We are making progress." Nothing wrong with that, it's correct, okay? But let's empower it. We could say, "We... We are... We are making progress." So, what we did was we emphasized the helping verb, "are making", okay? "We are making", can you say that after me? "We are making progress."

Number two, the regular sentence, "She will attend the conference." Now, let's make it stronger, more powerful. "She will attend the conference." Say it after me, "She will attend the conference." Now, we're confirming it or correcting someone, right? It's clearer.

So, the first two were with the verb "to be", alright? So, we can emphasize the helping verb with the verb "to be", which means "am", "is", "are", "was", "were", "will", right? We can do that. We can also do it with the verb "to have". That means with words like "have", "has", or "had". Let's look at some examples. The regular sentence, "I have read that book." Let's empower it, let's make it stronger, "I have read that book." Say it after me, "I have read that book." Good.

Number four, the regular sentence, "The city had warned the residents." Just plain, it's not trying to actually focus attention on any particular part. Now, let's see when we... What happens when we... When we emphasize "had", "The city had warned the residents", so that seems to suggest that before something happened, like a storm, the city had warned the residents, but some of them did not listen, they did not evacuate, or whatever. Okay? So, that's the difference.

Now, let's look at the next three. These are examples of when the helping verb is actually a modal verb. What are modal verbs? Here are a few examples, here at the bottom. "Can", "could", "should", "must", "may", and "might", right? So, these are also words, helping verbs that we can emphasize when we need to. Not all the time, but when we need to and when we want to speak more powerfully.

Number five. Let's read the regular sentence first. "We should discuss this in person." Okay. Or, you could say... Say it with me. "We should discuss this in person." We should discuss this in person. Okay? Stronger, much more powerful.

Number six, the regular sentence. "You must see this movie." Very calm, very... Not much emotion there, alright? But if someone says to you, "You must see this movie", they are recommending it very strongly and they have a lot of emotion. They love the movie, they think it's fantastic, and they want you to go and enjoy yourself and have the same amazing experience, so then they say, "You must see this movie." This is when we're making a strong recommendation. It's not the same as when someone goes to the doctor and the doctor says, "You must take this medicine." That's a different story. This is a positive experience. "You must see this movie." Okay? So you want to say it with a lot of emotion and emphasis.

Number seven. "I can stay late if necessary." Very blah sentence, okay? Let's make it stronger by emphasizing this word. Ready? Ready? Together. "I can stay late if necessary." I can stay late if necessary, okay? So you see how emphasizing the helping verbs, whether it's the verb "to be", the verb "to have", or modal verbs can make you speak more powerfully. […]