Blog about English
Using it and there as introductory or anticipatory subjects.
Dummy pronouns fill the subject position without referring to a specific person or thing.
The two main dummy pronouns in English are it and there.
Dummy it functions as the grammatical subject without referring to a particular noun.
It is commonly used with weather, time, distance and general situations.
English normally uses dummy it to describe weather conditions.
Examples include It is raining, It is windy and It snowed yesterday.
Dummy it is used to express time, dates, distance and temperature.
Examples include It is late, It is Monday, It is five kilometres away and It is 30 degrees.
Dummy it often introduces infinitive or that-clauses.
Examples include It is important to study and It is obvious that she is right.
Dummy there introduces the existence of someone or something.
Examples include There is a problem and There were several guests.
With existential there, the verb agrees with the following noun phrase.
Compare There is a book with There are two books.
Dummy it does not refer to a noun, while referential it replaces a previously mentioned thing or idea.
Compare It is cold today with I bought a phone. It is very fast.
Both dummy it and dummy there are common in all varieties of English, although informal speech sometimes uses contractions.
Examples include It's obvious and There's two people waiting, even when the following noun is plural.
Dummy it frequently appears in formal academic and written English with passive and reporting structures.
Examples include It is believed that..., It has been suggested that... and It seems that....
Many common English expressions contain dummy pronouns.
Examples include It depends, It looks like..., There is no doubt that... and There is no point in....
Use dummy pronouns where English requires a grammatical subject.
Common mistakes include omitting it, confusing dummy and referential it, incorrect agreement after there and translating directly from languages that allow subject omission.