Is 'He saw before him was not a horse, but a bear' grammatical?

[c2k5]

Is 'He saw before him was not a horse, but a bear' grammatical?
Can I add a 'was' or 'was's into the original sentence?

Original: A horse! He could not believe his eyes. A thick cloud was in his eyes, flashing with points of light. He rubbed his eyes fiercely to clear his sight. Then he saw before him not a horse, but a great brown bear. The animal was studying him with curiosity.

'Love of Life,' by Jack London, Part Two

To survive in nature, you must do whatever you can. Sometimes you have to do things you would not normally do when you are safe at home. Learn about what one man does to survive in this classic American short story by Jack London.

learningenglish.voanews.com

 

[emsr2d2]

Is 'He saw before him was not a horse, but a bear no full stop here' grammatical?
Can I add a 'was' no slash here or 'was's into the original sentence? "Was's" isn't a word.

Original: A horse! He could not believe his eyes. A thick cloud was in his eyes, flashing with points of light. He rubbed his eyes fiercely to clear his sight. Then he saw before him not a horse, but a great brown bear. The animal was studying him with curiosity.

'Love of Life,' by Jack London, Part Two

To survive in nature, you must do whatever you can. Sometimes you have to do things you would not normally do when you are safe at home. Learn about what one man does to survive in this classic American short story by Jack London.

learningenglish.voanews.com

No, your sentence isn't grammatical. To add "was", you'd have to say "He saw that the animal before him was not a horse, but a bear". The original should be read as "Then he saw, before him, not a horse but a great brown bear".
I'm sure you can see that if you remove "before him", which is additional information giving the location of the animal, you can't add "was" to the surrounding sentence. You would end up with "Then he saw was not a horse, but a great brown bear".

 

[Skrej]

Is 'He saw before him was not a horse, but a bear.' grammatical?
Can I add a 'was'/or 'was's into the original sentence?

If you add 'what' to the beginning of the sentence, then yes: What he saw before him was not a horse, but a bear.

 

[c2k5]

No, your sentence isn't grammatical. To add "was", you'd have to say "He saw that the animal before him was not a horse, but a bear".

If you add 'what' to the beginning of the sentence, then yes: What he saw before him was not a horse, but a bear.

Thank you, I can understand the two sentences above.

Is inversion, such as #2, #4, and #6 unnatural or ungrammatical?
#1 A bear was before him.
#2 Before him was a bear.
#3 Not a horse but a bear was before him.
#4 Before him was not a horse but a bear.
#5 He saw not a horse but a bear was before him.
#6 He saw before him was not a horse but a bear.

 

[emsr2d2]

Thank you, I can understand these the two sentences above.

Is inversion, like such as in #2, #4, and #6 below not unnatural or not ungrammatical?

1. A bear was before him.
2. Before him was a bear.
3. Not a horse but a bear was before him. Grammatically correct but very unlikely.
4. Before him was not a horse but a bear.
5. He saw that not a horse but a bear was before him. Note my correction.
6. He saw before him was not a horse but a bear. Note my correction. You used this version in post #1 and we already told you that it's incorrect.