Heavy NP Shift and Extraposition

A that-clause gives the content of a statement. It does not guarantee that this content is a fact: it seems likely that… expresses probability. In many patterns, that can be omitted; before a long clause, it is often retained for clarity.

A whether-clause and wh-clauses (who, what, why, how) express a question or a choice: it is not obvious why … In these clauses, word order is direct, as in a statement, without an auxiliary verb before the subject.

An infinitive clause shows an action: it is hard to find the entrance. If the action has its own performer, for introduces them: it is hard for newcomers to find the entrance.

An -ing clause after it is possible only after a limited range of evaluative expressions: it's no use, it's worth, it's pointless, it was great, it's a pleasure, it's a waste of time.

Adjectives of evaluation and probability: clear, likely, essential, odd, doubtful, regrettable. Noun-based evaluations: a pity, a shame, no wonder, a mistake, a good idea.

Verbs expressing feelings take an object me/him/everyone: it surprised me, it bothers them, it puzzled everyone. Verbs such as occur and suggest introduce the person with a preposition: it occurred to me, it was suggested to us.

The impersonal passive can present information without naming its source: it is said, it has been argued, it was agreed. The source then needs to be established from context. Seem, appear, happen, turn out, and follow also have it-constructions, but in other patterns they are used with other subjects: she seems tired.

The expressions take and cost work for an action and its cost: it takes time to learn a language, it cost them a fortune to repair the roof.

In the patterns it seems/appears/happens/turns out that…, you cannot simply move the that-clause before the bare verb. Compare: It seems that the plan failed. If an evaluation follows seem, an initial clause is possible: That the plan failed seems unlikely. Focus on the whole construction, not on the name of the verb.

If the sentence already contains dummy it, the clause must go at the end: it that … is impossible in the subject position.

In questions, an initial clause is rarely used: Is it true that …? Does it matter whether …? A tag question also repeats it, not words from the clause.

Neutral, business, and academic writing prefer the it-variant because the long clause comes at the end and carries new information.

An initial subject clause is grammatical with many predicates, but it sounds heavy, formal, or rhetorical. It is appropriate when the clause repeats information that is already known, in aphorisms, and in deliberately elevated style.

An initial clause with if is not possible: if at the beginning is read as a conditional conjunction, so whether is needed.

No comma is used before that after it …: it is odd that nobody called. In this structure, a comma is often mistakenly carried over from languages that require a comma before subordinate clauses.

In wh- and whether-clauses, word order is direct: it is unclear what the speaker meant, not *what did the speaker mean. The verb itself expresses the past tense.

In these patterns, a person is introduced with to: it was suggested to the staff, it occurred to him. Occurred is an active form, while was suggested is passive; the preposition depends on the verb, not on a general requirement of all passives. In a to-infinitive, a separate performer can be introduced with for: it is essential for managers to stay neutral.

A cleft sentence highlights an element: It was in May that the contract was signed. If you remove it was … that, a complete sentence with that element remains, not a subject clause.

Ordinary it refers to an object: I found the letter, and it was unopened. A clause that specifies a noun (A report appeared that the mayor would resign) is a separate construction (the postposition of a dependent clause from a noun phrase), as is the shifting of a long object to the end.

Constructions with it as an object (I find it odd that …) and a subject raised from a clause (She seems to have left) belong to separate topics, although they are easy to confuse with this one.

For a neutral, complete sentence corresponding to “it is important that…” or “it is a pity that…”, use it is important that… / it is a pity that…. Shortened forms are possible in conversational fragments, but it is required in this complete pattern.

In academic and business writing, extraposition helps you express ideas cautiously: it is possible that, it has been suggested that, it remains to be seen whether.

In conversation, short it-utterances give an evaluation or reaction: it was fun working with you, it surprised me that the shop was shut. Create variety by combining clause types with ordinary sentences.

A relative clause with who, which, or that is most often separated. The same rearrangement is also possible with other postmodifying material: a prepositional phrase, a content that-clause with nouns such as news, rumour, idea, and claim, and comparative or result clauses associated with more, such, or so.

These modifiers share a position to the right of the head and consist of several words. A single short adjective normally placed before the noun does not move this way: A report was published yesterday controversial.

When the head is a content noun, such as a rumour, news, word, or an idea, a content that-clause can be separated as naturally as a relative clause. It supplies the noun's content rather than describing it.

In the pattern, relative clause means a clause modifying the noun; PP means prepositional phrase; that-clause here supplies the noun's content; than-clause expresses comparison; and result clause expresses a consequence. Vertical bars separate alternatives, not words that must be written.

English favours placing long and important sentence elements at the end. A long modifier between subject and predicate creates centre embedding: the reader holds the subject in memory while waiting for the predicate.

Moving the modifier to the end removes this interruption and gives it end focus. Extraposition is therefore particularly natural in news, summaries, and academic writing where the most important content comes last.

Length is only one factor. A short modifier can also appear later: A man came in who I knew. A man I knew came in presents the information in a different order. Choose according to context and the desired emphasis, not a minimum word count.

Extraposition is most natural with an indefinite phrase introducing a new participant or event: A man, Some people, Something, Several students. The predicate is often presentational: come, arrive, happen, appear, be published, take place.

Indefinite phrases are often useful for introducing new information, but definite phrases are also possible: The student arrived who had won the prize. Naturalness depends on context, stress, and how the relevant participant is identified. A content that-clause can also explain a definite noun: The news came that the bridge had collapsed.

Extraposition is not limited to subjects: I met a man yesterday who knew your father. Complements or adverbials then intervene between the head and modifier, and should be kept short.

The first check is clarity. Another noun between the head and modifier can create a competing interpretation. Readers do not always choose the nearest noun: meaning, agreement, and context help. Nevertheless, avoid unnecessary ambiguity.

In clear teaching examples, the head and its modifier belong to the same clause. Do not mechanically move material beyond a long subordinate clause: in A man said that the bus had left who I had never met, the connection between who and man is hard to read. A safer version is A man who I had never met said that the bus had left. The limits of more complex syntactic cases are not determined solely by written distance.

The third limit is form. Separation does not change the modifier's relationship with its head: the relative clause's verb agrees with the head — A few visitors came who were late — and no resumptive pronoun is added, as in the incorrect that it challenges.

In heavy NP shift, the entire phrase, including an object, moves to the end: She donated to the hospital all the books her aunt had left her. The whole phrase all the books… has moved right; the head has not stayed behind.

In it-extraposition of a subject clause, dummy it occupies subject position while the semantic subject, a clause, appears at the end: It is obvious that the lift is broken. An entire semantic subject clause is displaced, not a noun's modifier.

In the construction studied here, the noun head stays in place and its dependent modifier appears later. Check that the material actually specifies that noun: distance between a noun and following words is not sufficient evidence of extraposition.

Extraposition occurs in both speech and writing, where its main function is to free the beginning of a sentence from a long modifier. In news, it helps name an event quickly and then develop the details.

Check modifier length, information focus, distance from the head, and possible ambiguity. If final position makes the sentence clearer, you can use it; this is a choice, not a mandatory step after satisfying a checklist.

Do not use extraposition in every sentence: a succession of such constructions can sound affected. It is a tool for a particular effect, not an obligatory rule.

The whole direct object phrase shifts. The verb stays in place, while a shorter constituent, such as a prepositional phrase or an expression of place or time, comes between the verb and the object.

Typical short constituents include to the board, in the margin, on the table and with the letter, as well as a short adverb such as upstairs. Weight involves complexity as well as length: a relative clause, a list or long modifiers can make a phrase heavy.

Weight is relative: the object’s length and complexity are compared with the other constituent. Short unstressed objects usually remain beside the verb. Order also depends on information focus and context, not just word count.

The unshifted order remains grammatical even with a long object. Shifting is a way to improve processing. There is no fixed length threshold, and reading a borderline sentence aloud can help you judge its balance.

An ordinary unstressed pronoun has very little weight, so it follows the verb directly: sent it to Max, not sent to Max it. Short noun phrases likewise normally do not need a shift.

With separable transitive phrasal verbs, an unstressed pronoun goes between the verb and particle: wrote it down. A short noun phrase can go on either side of the particle, while a long phrase usually follows it: wrote down every address that…. This does not apply to inseparable combinations such as look after.

Many verbs allow both gave Sam the book and gave the book to Sam. When the direct object is long, the double-object construction already places it last, so no shift is needed.

With the to-pattern, the long object can follow the to-phrase: gave to Sam the book that…. Do not automatically transfer the double-object construction to other verbs. Standard patterns taught here include explain something to someone, suggest something to someone and donate something to an organisation.

The end of a sentence is often where the main new information appears, a principle called end-focus. Shifting frequently serves that purpose too: a short, familiar constituent appears earlier, while long, new information comes last.

The shift is especially familiar in written, formal and academic language. If a sentence becomes too heavy, split it into two, use a pronoun in the second sentence or recast it in the passive.

Heavy noun phrase shift moves the WHOLE direct object rightwards past a shorter constituent. This distinguishes it from two related kinds of extraposition.

Subject-clause extraposition uses anticipatory it and places the clause later. Extraposition from a noun phrase separates only a postmodifier, such as a relative clause, from the rest of the phrase. Inversion after a place expression is another distinct construction.