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So X said to Y:

I did tell you yesterday!

As far as I know, the word did there is to emphasize my point or tell him that I'm so sure I've told him the story yesterday. What I want to ask is, what's the word we may use to emphasize our point like that in a sentence with no verb? Like

You ARE the one who breaks it!

For emphasis, I capitalized the ARE, but is there any word that functions like did does in the previous sentence?

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  • In the first example, as you say, did is used for emphasis. Unemphasized one would say, simply, "I told you yesterday." (Note that early modern English, such as is found in Shakespeare or the King James bible, is replete with "He did [verb] ..." constructions which are used more for declamation than word emphasis.) When using a copula (verb of being, such as is or are), you have to rely on voice stress or italics to get the emphasis across.
    – Robusto
    May 14, 2014 at 13:40
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    Related: Can “be” be used with the modal verb “do” and How to add emphasis to a modal verb.
    – RegDwigнt ♦
    May 14, 2014 at 13:51
  • Thank you very much for the editing, especially the tags (because actually I don't know which tag to be used) and for the links (because, I wanted to search it, but, just like the tags, I don't know what keyword I have to use).
    – Konayuki
    May 14, 2014 at 14:03

3 Answers 3

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  • Valery, verily I say unto you, you are indeed the messiah sent unto the world!
  • Celery is indeed the food to eat to lose weight.
  • I am indeed the one who killed her.
  • You are truly a genius beyond normal proportions! Who would have thought of that?
  • Veerasamy is verily a man of great faith.
  • You are an absolute genius. How may I worship you?
  • Laleetha and Gopisamee are true lovers of the divine kind.
  • I have no freakin idea what you are talking about.

Verily is archaic use, and thus may be used in jest or sarcasm.

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  • Naa, that's the word I'm searching for! Thank you so much!
    – Konayuki
    May 14, 2014 at 13:53
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It depends on what exactly you're trying to emphasize.

"Why do you break this?" You are the one who breaks it!

"Why did you tell him I'm the one who breaks it?" You are the one who breaks it!

"I'm the one who fixes it." You are the one who breaks it!

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  • So basically we can only morph the sentence , although the OP asked for an alternative word I was looking for a one word alternative. Anyway +1 for your effort!
    – Invoker
    May 14, 2014 at 13:41
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You can also say : you are just the one who breaks it!!

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