Emphasis & advanced · CEFR C1 · Fluent

Fronting — English emphasis and inversion

Moving a phrase to the front makes it the topic. Unlike inversion, nothing else in the sentence has to change.

The shape

the part you want first + normal clause

Choose what your sentence opens with.

In Hindi

किसी वाक्यांश को आगे लाने से वही वाक्य का विषय बन जाता है — बाक़ी कुछ बदलना नहीं पड़ता।

CoCap explains every structure in both languages, because a rule you understand in Hindi is a rule you can use in English.

The mistake to fix first

The sentence Indian-English speakers actually produce, and the reason it is wrong.

Commonly said	Correct English
That film, I did not liked it.	That film, I did not like. Fronting moves the object to the front — it should not also be left at the end.

Commonly said

Correct English

That film, I did not liked it.

That film, I did not like.

Fronting moves the object to the front — it should not also be left at the end.

Easy to confuse with

Close enough to be mixed up with this one. Knowing the difference is most of knowing either.

Questions people ask

What is the fronting used for?: Moving a phrase to the front makes it the topic. Unlike inversion, nothing else in the sentence has to change. In practice: choose what your sentence opens with.
How do you form the fronting?: the part you want first + normal clause.
What is the most common mistake with the fronting?: Saying “That film, I did not liked it.” instead of “That film, I did not like.”. Fronting moves the object to the front — it should not also be left at the end.

Where fronting fits

Where this structure sits in the ladder, and what surrounds it.

Fronting is a CEFR C1 structure — the fluent band — and it belongs to emphasis & advanced. CoCap’s syllabus files every structure this way so you can learn in order instead of jumping between whatever a search happened to return.

Reading it is not the same as saying it.

CoCap turns this page into practice: Hindi sentence in, English sentence out, corrected one thing at a time. Free, no card.

Practise the fronting →

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