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Emphatic vs Optative - What's the difference?

emphatic | optative |

As adjectives the difference between emphatic and optative

is that emphatic is characterized by emphasis while optative is expressing a wish or a choice.

As nouns the difference between emphatic and optative

is that emphatic is an emphatic consonant while optative is a mood of verbs found in some languages (e.g. Old Prussian, Ancient Greek), used to express a wish. English has no inflexional optative mood, but it has modal verbs like "might" and "may" that express possibility.

emphatic

English

Alternative forms

* emphatick (obsolete)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Characterized by emphasis.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=June 28 , author=Jamie Jackson , title=Wimbledon 2012: Lukas Rosol shocked by miracle win over Rafael Nadal , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=Yet when play restarted the Czech was a train that kept on running over Nadal. After breaking Nadal in the opening game of the final set, he went 2-0 up and later took the count to 4-2 with yet another emphatic ace – one of his 22 throughout.}}
  • Stated with conviction.
    • He gave me an emphatic no when I asked him out.
  • belonging to set of English tense forms comprising the auxiliary verb do + an infinitive without to
  • (phonology) of obstruent consonants in Semitic languages.

    • Derived terms

    * emphatically

    Related terms

    * emphasis * emphasise, emphasize

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (phonology) an emphatic consonant

    • See also

    * phatic

    Anagrams

    *

    optative

    English

    Alternative forms

    *

    Adjective

    (-)
  • expressing a wish or a choice.
    • (Fuller)
  • (grammar) related or pertaining to the optative mood.

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • (grammar) a mood of verbs found in some languages (e.g. Old Prussian, Ancient Greek), used to express a wish. English has no inflexional optative mood, but it has modal verbs like "might" and "may" that express possibility.
  • (grammar) a verb or expression in the optative mood.

    • Derived terms

    * optatively

    See also

    * subjunctive