Fronting Prepositional Objects
In Danish, if you want to emphasize the object of a preposition—for example, the antique you are haggling over—you can move that object to the very beginning of the sentence.
When you do this, two important grammatical rules apply:
- Preposition Stranding: The preposition does not move to the front with its object. Instead, it gets left behind (or "stranded") later in the sentence.
- The V2 Rule: Because the fronted object now occupies the first position, the main verb must come immediately after it to stay in the second position. This causes the subject and verb to swap places (inversion).
| That collector's item, we have been looking for for a long time. | Det der samleobjekt har vi længe ledt efter. |
| The porcelain, they are not interested in because of the scratch. | Porcelænet er de ikke interesserede i på grund af skrammen. |
Fronting in Questions
This exact same structure applies when asking questions about a prepositional object. If you start a question with a phrase like hvilken (which), the object moves to the front while the preposition stays at the end.
| Which auction did she buy the collector's item at? | Hvilken auktion købte hun samleobjektet på? |
Fronting Multiple Objects
You can also front multiple nouns as a single block if they share the same preposition. Even though the fronted phrase is longer, it still counts as position one, meaning the verb must immediately follow it.
| The year and the hallmark, the expert is very sure of. | Årstallet og stemplet er eksperten meget sikker på. |
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