INFINITIVE CLAUSES WITH IMPERSONAL IT

INFINITIVE CLAUSES WITH IMPERSONAL IT

We commonly use the pronoun it as both a subject and an object pronoun:

Don’t drink the milk. It smells terrible.

Has anyone seen my phone? I can’t find it anywhere.

We often use it in question tags:

That furniture is lovely. It isn’t too expensive for us, is it?

You know the flat with three bedrooms by the supermarket? It’s the best one we’ve seen so far, isn’t it?

See also:

• Tags
• It, this and that in paragraphs

It as an ‘empty’ or ‘dummy’ subject and object

We can use it as an ‘empty’ subject or as an ‘empty’ object. It is ‘empty’ because it doesn’t refer to anything in particular:

I know it’s going to rain today!

It’s getting a bit late now, so let’s watch a DVD at home, shall we?

She doesn’t like it when you are so quiet.

How long will it be before he gives up smoking?

Anticipatory it

We also use it to introduce or ‘anticipate’ the subject or object of a sentence, especially when the subject or object of the sentence is a clause. Most commonly, such clauses are to + infinitive and that clauses. We also call this use of it a ‘dummy’ subject, since the real subject is another part of the sentence (real subject underlined):

It’s good that she’s doing more exercise. (or, more formally: That she’s doing more exercise is good.)

It was nice to talk with them again. (or, more formally: To talk with them again was nice.)

It’s quite likely that we shall be late, so please do start without us.

I find it amazing that …

With verbs such as find or consider, it + adjective + that clause or it + adjective + toinfinitive, are commonly used to anticipate an object:

I find it amazing that they’ve never stopped arguing about football.

Not: I find amazing that they’ve …

I must say, local people will consider it to be an insult that they have not learned to speak a few words of the language.

I find it surprising to see so many people here.

We also use it when a clause is the subject of a verb such as appear, seem, look, occur, which hedge or soften the statement, making it less direct:

It seems they’ve all lost contact since they met at the wedding.

It occurred to me that we might visit them while we are in South Africa.

See also:

• Hedges (just)

It and cleft sentences (It was my friend who …)

We use it in cleft sentences. It emphasises the subject or object of the main clause:

It was his sister who ran the marathon in New York, wasn’t it?

[talking about a computer problem]

Was it the printer that caused the problem?

It was Mary they promoted, not Laura.

See also:

• Cleft sentences (It was in June we got married.)

It with the passive voice

It is common with the passive voice. It makes the sentence seem less personal and more objective:

It was decided that we should all swim across the lake before breakfast.

It is accepted that research into cancer has advanced considerably in the last few years.

See also:

• Passive: active and passive