It took 20 minutes to finish my homework.
Hi teachers!
I wonder what grammatical part 'it' is in the sentence. Some of my books says 'it' is a expletive subject and the real subject is 'to finish my homework' while others say 'it' is a non-person subject (sorry I don't know how to call it in English ).
I also remember one of my teachers said it is 'a situational it'.
I have know idea which to believe. Please help me out native teachers.
Many thanks in advance.
Top answer
Michelle Cha Some of my books says say 'it' is a expletive subject and the real subject is 'to finish my homework' This is correct. Instead of "expletive 'it'" you can say "dummy 'it'". It's the same thing.
- Michelle Cha Some of my books says say 'it' is a expletive subject and the real subject is 'to finish my homework' This is correct.
- Instead of "expletive 'it'" you can say "dummy 'it'".
- It's the same thing.
- Michelle Cha others say 'it' is a non-person subject Well, in your sentence it doesn't represent a person, so it's a non-person subject, but that's always true of expletive 'it' anyway, so this doesn't add much information to our analysis.
- I think you can safely ignore this fact in your analysis of this sentence.
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Michelle ChaSome of my bookssayssay 'it' is a expletive subject and the real subject is 'to finish my homework'
This is correct. Instead of "expletive 'it'" you can say "dummy 'it'". It's the same thing.
Michelle Cha others say 'it' is a non-person subject
W
0There are various labels. This article makes distinctions between Anticipatory 'It,' Dummy 'It,' and Preparatory 'It'. I think it is splitting hairs.
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-anticipatory-it-1689044
0
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