# fronting

Pronunciation: say "FRUN-ting" /ˈfɹʌntɪŋ/

## Verb

1. Present participle and gerund of front. — present participle and gerund of front
   - Simple: Present participle and gerund of front. Use this '-ing' form for an action happening now or as the name of the action.
   - _The warehouses fronting the river were converted into apartments._
   - _He got into trouble for fronting a company that hid the real owners._

## Noun

2. The act of putting on a false front to impress others. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Pretending to be richer, tougher, or cooler than you really are to impress people.
   - _The whole performance was pure fronting, meant to make her seem wealthier than she was._
   - _Behind the fronting and the bravado, he was deeply insecure._
3. The movement of a word or phrase to nearer the beginning of a sentence or clause than it would normally appear, often for emphasis.
   - Simple: Moving a word or phrase closer to the start of a sentence, often to give it more emphasis.
   - _The fronting of the object gives the clause a marked, emphatic reading._
   - _In English questions, fronting places the wh-word at the start of the clause._
4. The shifting of a vowel's or consonant's articulation to a point farther forward in the vocal tract than a given reference point.
   - Simple: When a vowel or consonant is spoken farther forward in the mouth than usual.
   - _The gradual fronting of the 'goose' vowel is well documented across many English accents._
   - _Speech therapists note fronting when a child replaces back consonants with front ones._
5. A phonological relationship in which a front vowel appears in place of a relatively back vowel in an inflected form of a word.
   - Simple: A pattern where a front vowel replaces a back vowel when a word changes form.
   - _The vowel alternation between 'man' and 'men' is a classic case of fronting._
   - _Germanic umlaut produced fronting in many irregular noun plurals._
6. An analogous relationship between the vowel sounds in a dialect relative to the language standard or an earlier form of the language.
   - Simple: A similar vowel pattern that sets a dialect apart from the standard or an older form of the language.
   - _California English shows notable fronting of the 'goose' vowel compared with older varieties._
   - _The dialect's fronting clearly separates its vowels from the national standard._

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/fronting (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).