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Tenacious Learner Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
What part of speech is 'it' in all the sentences?
Hi teachers,
According to this sentence, 'It is natural to make mistakes when you learn something new'.
Two possible questions could be:
a) What is it natural to make when you learn something new?
b) Is it natural to make mistakes when you learn something new?
My question is: What part of speech is 'it' in all the above sentences? Is it the 'empty pronoun'? if yes, 'What does 'it' in my sentences refer to?' Because none of the below ones fit in my sentences given:
The empty pronoun it can be used to refer to the weather (It will be cloudy tomorrow.)
The empty pronoun it can be used to refer to the time (It is five o'clock.)
The empty pronoun it can be used to refer to the date (It was December.)
The empty pronoun it can be used as the object of verbs such as like,prefer (I prefer it when people are polite.)
Thanks in advance.
According to this sentence, 'It is natural to make mistakes when you learn something new'.
Two possible questions could be:
a) What is it natural to make when you learn something new?
b) Is it natural to make mistakes when you learn something new?
My question is: What part of speech is 'it' in all the above sentences? Is it the 'empty pronoun'? if yes, 'What does 'it' in my sentences refer to?' Because none of the below ones fit in my sentences given:
The empty pronoun it can be used to refer to the weather (It will be cloudy tomorrow.)
The empty pronoun it can be used to refer to the time (It is five o'clock.)
The empty pronoun it can be used to refer to the date (It was December.)
The empty pronoun it can be used as the object of verbs such as like,prefer (I prefer it when people are polite.)
Thanks in advance.
Top answer
Here are a couple of references: "it" is a syntactic placeholder. htm
- Here are a couple of references: "it" is a syntactic placeholder.
- htm
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5 Answers
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Here are a couple of references: "it" is a syntactic placeholder.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntactic_expletive
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/minor/dummy.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntactic_expletive
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/minor/dummy.htm
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Thinking SpainAccording to this sentence, 'It is natural to make mistakes when you learn something new'.Two possible questions could be:a) What is it natural to make when you learn something new?b) Is it natural to make mistakes when you learn something new? My question is: What part of speech is 'it' in all the above sentences? Is it the 'empty pronoun'? if
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There are at least two different usages:
Anticipatory it (as Bill explains, "it" anticipates another syntactic unit that is positioned later in the sentence.
Dummy It: It just is a placeholder required by syntactical rules:
Take it easy.
There's nothing to it.
It is raining.
Anticipatory it (as Bill explains, "it" anticipates another syntactic unit that is positioned later in the sentence.
Dummy It: It just is a placeholder required by syntactical rules:
Take it easy.
There's nothing to it.
It is raining.
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AlpheccaStarsHere are a couple of references: "it" is a syntactic placeholder. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/minor/dummy.htmHi,
Thank you for your help.
Let's see if I understood it. here It is used to "anticipate" something which appear
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BillJIts part of speech is pronoun - we call it 'dummy it'.Hi,
Oops! I didn't see you reply, until I have posted mine. Thank you very much for your commentaries too.
TS
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