A frame before the front position
Not only nouns can be set up before the Vorfeld. Time phrases and whole clauses can too, separated by a comma or a pause and picked up in the Vorfeld by a short word: da or dann for time and conditions, das for a dass or w clause. The verb comes right after the short word.
Time, condition, clause
Gestern, da war ich einfach zu müde.
Yesterday, well, I was just too tired.
The time is set apart as a topic, often in contrast to today.
Wenn es morgen regnet, dann fahren wir eben nicht.
If it rains tomorrow, then we just won't go.
Dass er pünktlich kommt, das glaube ich erst, wenn ich es sehe.
Him turning up on time? I'll believe it when I see it.
Wie sie das geschafft hat, das weiß bis heute keiner.
How she managed it, nobody knows to this day.
The effect is a two-step delivery: first this is what I'm talking about, then the statement. It belongs to speech and lively writing. Wenn …, dann … is also normal in neutral texts; da and das after a frame sound spoken.
Half a verb phrase in front
German can front a participle or infinitive on its own, sometimes with its object. English cannot do this without rephrasing. The fronted verb becomes the topic, and the rest of the sentence says how things stand with it. It almost always comes with a contrast, stated or implied.
Gelesen habe ich das Buch schon, nur nicht verstanden.
I did read the book, I just didn't understand it.
Angerufen hat sie nicht, aber sie hat geschrieben.
She didn't call, but she did write.
Helfen kann ich dir gern, bezahlen nicht.
Helping you is fine, paying for it isn't.
Geschlafen wird jetzt, keine Diskussion.
Now it's time to sleep, no arguments.
Impersonal passive with a fronted participle: a firm instruction, typical with children.
In speech the fronted verb carries a rising accent and the contrasting word later a falling one: GELESEN habe ich es, nur nicht VERSTANDEN. Without the second accent the sentence sounds unfinished.
A split noun phrase
With quantities and negation, the noun can go to the front and the quantity word stay behind. The noun becomes the topic, the amount becomes the news. The word left behind takes its pronoun form: keins, keine, keinen, welche, viele.
Same content, different focus
Neutral order
Ich habe heute keine Zeit.
I don't have time today.
Er hat kein Geld.
He has no money.
Split: noun as topic
Zeit habe ich heute keine.
Time is the one thing I don't have today.
Geld hat er keins, aber gute Kontakte.
Money he hasn't got, but he has good contacts.
Bücher hat sie unglaublich viele.
She has an incredible number of books.
An empty front: es and verb-first
Sometimes nothing should be the topic. A placeholder es fills the Vorfeld so that a new subject can move back to where news belongs. The verb agrees with the real subject, not with es. In jokes and casual storytelling, the Vorfeld can even stay empty: the verb opens the sentence and signals here comes a story.
Es haben sich drei Bewerberinnen gemeldet.
Three applicants have got in touch.
es fills the slot; haben agrees with Bewerberinnen.
Es stand plötzlich ein Fremder vor der Tür.
Suddenly there was a stranger at the door.
Kommt ein Mann zum Arzt und sagt: Herr Doktor, ich werde immer übersehen.
So a man goes to the doctor and says: Doctor, people keep ignoring me.
Verb-first: the classic opening of a joke.
Ich frag sie, ob sie mitkommt. Sagt sie: Keine Lust.
I ask her if she's coming. And she says: Can't be bothered.
The placeholder es disappears as soon as anything else takes the Vorfeld: Plötzlich stand ein Fremder vor der Tür.
