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Angliholic Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

Took it upon himself to invent

Originally, telephones only let people talk to each other over short distances. Recognizing the problem, Edison took it upon himself to invent his own telephone transmitter, which was used up until the 1980s.

Hi,

I think the bolded "it" in the above is a dummy object and the real object is "to invent ... " But I ran across a similar sentence in a dictionary, but it doesn't have the dummy object. So does the following sound good to you? Thanks.

How could he take upon himself to say that?
  

Top answer

Hi, It should be "took it upon himself to invent" as it is already written. "Take it upon oneself to do" is an idiom, regardless the context you've supplied. Edison took the responsibility to invent the telephone transmitter himself.

— Regards

  • Hi, It should be "took it upon himself to invent" as it is already written.
  • "Take it upon oneself to do" is an idiom, regardless the context you've supplied.
  • Edison took the responsibility to invent the telephone transmitter himself.
  • Since it is an idiom, you can't omit the word "it".
  • Regards
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1 Answers
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Hi,

It should be "took it upon himself to invent" as it is already written.

"Take it upon oneself to do" is an idiom, regardless the context you've supplied.

Edison took the responsibility to invent the telephone transmitter himself.

Since it is an idiom, you can't omit the word "it".

Regards
0

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