Questions tagged [dummy-it]
The expletive or pleonastic "it" used because a noun or pronoun is required syntactically but which itself has no explicit meaning or reference.
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Why do English sentences often begin with a meaningless dummy pronoun + 'to be' construction?
Reopen Rationale
Araucaria writes in a comment:
There's no doubt that such constructions introduced by expletive pronouns are perfectly grammatical and acceptable - which is why this question got so ...
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Preparatory it + -ing: informal
According to Swan's Practical (BrE),
When the subject of a clause is an infinitive expression, preparatory
it is common before be + adjective/noun, or with for + object + infinitive.
However, ...
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How to identify an expletive / "dummy it" when sentence diagramming?
I found this diagram for the opening line of Pride and Prejudice:
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
If I'm ...
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'I think IT unlikely that our team can win'. <--Is IT the object?
We think it unlikely that our inexperienced team can win a single > game this season.
Is "it" the direct object? If it is, what is the function of the noun clause "that our ...
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English words for describing ambient conditions
There are two uses for the temperature terms hot, warm, cold and cool. One use refers to the state of a person or thing anaphorically or deictically, and one refers to the ambient temperature and is ...
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Why is "it" used instead of "he/she" for human being in "it becomes a wise and virtuous man…"?
Now this relaxation of the mind from work consists on playful words or deeds. Therefore it becomes a wise and virtuous man to have recourse to such things at times.
—Thomas Aquinas
Is the bold phrase ...
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"Abcs it is, then" with plural nouns?
Is it possible to use "it is, then" with plural nouns?
Example:
"Apples or pears?"
"Apples."
"Apples it is, then."
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Who is your favorite singer? It is [duplicate]
A Japanese friend of mine recently asked me a question that I could not quite explain.
A. Who is your favorite singer?
B. It is Ed Sheeran.
A. Who is the president of the United States?
B. ...
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"What is it(,) to be a hero?"
My friend and I have gotten into a rather passionate debate about whether Karen Paige's monologue at the end of season two of Daredevil was written in a grammatically correct fashion.
On screen, we ...
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How to distinguish it-cleft and extraposition? 'It was Ben that found it' v 'It was clear that Ben found it'
I have a question about it-cleft and extraposition.
For example the two sentences:
It was in the apartment that Ben found something interesting -- a mouse eating cheese.
It was obvious that whenever ...
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Choice of “it” versus “he/she”
I am not sure what is the underlying rule for when the use of “it” is appropriate and when “he / she”. Consider the following two examples:
There is a lady at the door. It is my aunt.
Do you know ...
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reversing extraposition
Let’s assume we have this sentence:
It was the invention of the hand-held calculator that
provided the original technology for the present
generation of small but powerful comput...
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What is the grammatical explanation for an 'It looks like ...' clause? (dummy subjects)
Recently, I have been trying to understand the nuances of language to turn myself into a better writer. This has led me to the 'dummy subject' or 'dummy pronoun.' I am clear on the function of 'there,'...
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” 'it' was him”. Why do we use 'it' when referring to a person by this object pronoun (him)? [duplicate]
Why do we use IT together with HIM? Isn't IT only for non-people?
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What is the function of the first "it" in "it is worth it"?
Here is a sentence in which two instances of "it" appear in the same coordinate clause:
This job involves a lot of hard work but it is worth it.
Obviously, the second "it" refers ...
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