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In some game, the narrator said:

"Great is the weapon that cuts on its own"

I can't get it, how could this clause be grammatically right, the issue is in the part "Great is the", to me that means that what follows is the definition of "great", which is not only not the desired meaning, it also has no right meaning, "Greatness" had to be used in this case, but for the desired meaning, it should be something like "Great it's the weapon that cuts on its own", just adding "it" after the word "Great" would solve this issue for me.

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  • What's your native language?
    – Apollyon
    Commented May 23, 2022 at 3:26
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    Your suggested alternative of "Great it's the weapon that cuts on its own" does not make sense. (You could add a comma, so "Great, it's the weapon that cuts on its own" but doing so changes the meaning.)
    – Fiona
    Commented May 23, 2022 at 7:02

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"Great" is a predicate adjective. (Please look up that term if you're unfamiliar with it.) The word order is nonstandard but common in some contexts. With a more typical word order, it would be:

The weapon that cuts on its own is great.

(By the way, my high school's motto was a Latin phrase that we translated as "Great is the truth, and it prevails.")

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    Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented May 23, 2022 at 5:59
  • More examples to add to Michael Harvey's one: "Heavy the heart that carries this burden" or "Happy the man who can call today his own". I'd add that this word order is not commonly spoken (in modern British English at least, I can't say for other variants) except in some stock phrases, and I wouldn't use it in everyday conversation.
    – Fiona
    Commented May 23, 2022 at 7:00
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    It's a way of emphasising the word that is placed first - only used in literary or mock-archaic language.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented May 23, 2022 at 8:08

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