Subject and object?

Question

Hi! everyone.Could you help identify the subject and the object in the following sentence?"What is it that we should call it?"And do "what" and (former)"it" refer to the same thing?Thanks!

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

The base sentence is this:

We should call it [what?].

Note that the verb "call" takes an object and an object complement. Here those are "it" and "[what?]".
____________________________

Highlighting [what?] in a cleft structure gives this:

It is [what?] that we should call it.

Note that a cleft structure begins with a dummy "it" (not a referring "it").
_____________________________

Transforming the cleft sentence into question form gives:

What is it that we should call it?

So the main clause has dummy "it" for a subject, and the relative clause has "we" for a subject; the main clause has no object, but the relative clause has referring "it" for an object.

CJ

Subject and object?

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions