Fronting objects and predicative complements

In the fronted-object pattern, the object occupies the initial position and is not duplicated in its ordinary position after the verb. The subject and verb follow it.

The modal or auxiliary does not move across the subject: This claim I cannot verify; The first draft we have approved. Cannot I would create an inappropriate inversion in this pattern.

The fronted item need not be a short noun phrase. A long phrase, however, needs especially clear preceding context; otherwise the reader has to wait too long for the subject and predicate.

No inversion does not mean no auxiliary. Negation, modality, the perfect and other meanings retain the auxiliaries they need: This I do not understand; That much we have established.

In This much I do know, do emphasizes the assertion: the speaker really does know at least this. The order remains subject + auxiliary + main verb: I + do + know.

If the original sentence contains negation, a modal or a particular tense form, the transformation does not authorize removing or replacing it.

A predicative complement normally follows be or another linking verb and describes the subject. It can also be fronted. In this pattern, the subject remains before the verb: Guilty he certainly was.

This use is mainly formal, literary or rhetorical. The concessive pattern Brilliant she may be, but … is particularly recognizable: the speaker acknowledges one quality, then adds an important limitation.

Not every initial adjective belongs to this construction. In Exhausted, she left early, the opening phrase describes her state during the action. That is a related construction with a supplementary adjective phrase.

With ordinary fronting, the object retains the role it had after the verb: That report I have not read. There is therefore no second it or that report inside the clause.

Informal speech allows another structure, called left dislocation: That report, I have not read it yet. The initial phrase introduces a topic outside the main clause, often separated by a pause, and a pronoun resumes it within the clause.

Both constructions exist. If the task is to front an object within one clause, do not repeat it with a pronoun. For conversational topic-setting with a pause, a resumptive pronoun is possible.

Do not turn this local rule into a claim that fronting never permits inversion. Initial never, rarely, under no circumstances and other negative or restrictive adverbials require the auxiliary before the subject in formal style: Never have I seen ….

A place expression at the beginning can allow another type, locative inversion: On the desk lay the envelope. So/such patterns also have their own rules: So serious was the problem that ….

First identify what has been fronted and which pattern is being used. In this lesson’s examples, the subject remains before the auxiliary or main verb. Negative adverbials, place constructions and so/such patterns may require a different order.

First identify the element’s role in an ordinary sentence. If it is an object, move that element without changing the subject, tense, negation, modal meaning or other facts.

Then check the rest of the sentence. The word order should be the same as it would be if the fronted element returned to its ordinary position. This condition I cannot accept corresponds to I cannot accept this condition.

Finally, check the communicative purpose. Without an established topic, contrast or rhetorical aim, there is no need to force a neutral text into a marked order.