Questions tagged [preposing]
For questions about the situation where elements in a sentence that have been moved closer to the beginning of the sentence than they would normally appear. For example, "confused I am" in "She said I might be confused. Well, confused I am!"
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"We take these items to be …" VS "These items we take to be …" — How natural to put "these items" forward?
the textbook "The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language", page 600:
We therefore include in the preposition category all of the subordinating conjunctions of traditional grammar, with ...
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"Whether we buy a new car is still to be decided." — Can we use "if" instead of "whether"?
I know sometimes we can replace "whether" with "if" and sometimes we can't.
In this thread, I'm interested in the particular occasion when "whether" stands at the ...
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"This, I like." VS "This is what I like." — In which cases would you prefer one and in which the other?
from one of answers on english.stackexchange.com:
(1) I like this. — That focuses on the person talking.
(2) This, I like. — That focuses on the object of the statement.
my variant:
(3) This is what ...
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Does the O-S-V sentence sound normal in a formal context
Does O-S-V sentence like this sound normal for native speakers? (context: a wiki page for a knowledge database)
The detailed information you can find in chapter 1.
Or I had better use one ...
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Why does this sentence use "attack we will" instead of "we will attack"?
Today I saw on a TV the talk given by the president Trump. He said something like this:
"I will not say when we are going to attack, but attack we will."
I do understand the meaning of the ...
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Why is it "Here you are!" but "Here comes the teacher."?
Why is it "Here you are!" but "Here comes the teacher." ? I'm quite confused. When should I use inversion?
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How to analyze this sentence - "I have to wait for I don't know how long."
I know the following sentence is correct:
I have to wait for I don't know how long.
If we shift "for long" part like this (see #2), it will be incorrect. Right?
I have to wait for how ...
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"and build upon that, but build they have": Should that 2nd "build" be "built"?
From the book Thinking in Java:
The .NET platform is roughly the same as the Java Virtual Machine (JVM; the software platform on which Java programs execute) and Java libraries, and C# bears ...
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What is "Confused I am"?
I often encounter in the Internet strange phrases like "Confused I am".
What does this strange word order mean?
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What do you make of "try we are"?
That does not mean we shouldn’t try to find it — and try we are. For more than 50 years, scientists have been using high-powered radio telescopes and other equipment to try to intercept any signals ...
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