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Is the following statement correct? should we add comma after bed?

The idea that she was still in the bed surprised me.

Can we move that-clause as following:

Surprised me the idea that she was still in bed.

Or Should we add it?

It surprised me the idea that she was still in bed.

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  • There should not be a comma, because the sentence is fundamentally a simple subject-verb-object sentence: (The idea that she was still in the bed) (surprised) (me). So you wouldn't put a comma in there any more than you would put one in "The dog ate, the food."
    – stangdon
    Feb 25, 2017 at 12:00

3 Answers 3

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Surprised me the idea that she was still in bed.

This doesn't work because you have to have a subject before the verb.

It surprised me the idea that she was still in bed.

This is better, but it is a pronoun representing the idea. It is therefore unnecessary to repeat the idea.

It surprised me that she was still in bed.

If you want to get rid of the subject, you could use passive voice:

I was surprised that she was still in bed.

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The idea that she's still in bed surprised me.

"that she's still in bed" is a defining relative clause, so the sentence doesn't need commas before and after the clause.

As for the sentence "Surprised me the idea that she's still in bed", it's not grammatical as replied by @JavaLatte.

You can use 'it' to introduce the subject or object of a sentence, especially when the subject or object is a clause of the sentence as follows:

It surpised me that she's still in bed.

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The most succinct but still grammatical version would be:

That she was still in bed surprised me.

Alternately, the most straightforward construction would be:

I was surprised she was still in bed.

(You don't need the "that" in that version to preface the relative clause because the meaning is clear without it. It's still correct.)

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