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Eipjoo Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Why it?

Given the sentence:

My dad says it must've been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringotts, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd.

There is a male noun, wizard, then why is the ‘it’ used instead of ‘he’? Can the word, wizard, be used in both sexes?
  

Top answer

That is the expletive "it", similar to "there" in the same position.

— Enoon

  • That is the expletive "it", similar to "there" in the same position.
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10 Answers
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That is the expletive "it", similar to "there" in the same position.
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Yes, you always make me clear at what I become confused. Thank you very much.
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enoonThat is the expletive "it"
I wouldn’t call it an expletive there, since it clearly refers to the wizard. He could very well replace it, but for some reason, the writer chose not to. An expletive would be something like It must have taken a powerful wizard to get around Gringotts.
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Aspara GusAn expletive would be something like It must have taken a powerful wizard to get around Gringotts.
Right, but that's what the original sentence means.
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enoonRight, but that's what the original sentence means.
But that’s not how it was originally written.
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Aspara Gus enoonRight, but that's what the original sentence means.But that’s not how it was originally written.
It is if that's how you read it, and that's how it read to me.
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enoonIt is if that's how you read it, and that's how it read to me.
We can’t parse a word based solely on the intended meaning of the sentence.

Well, I suppose we can, since you just did.
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Aspara GusWe can’t parse a word based solely on the intended meaning of the sentence.
You do hear yourself, right?
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enoonIs there some other way to read?
Erm, that didn’t come out exactly how I intended.

Let me put it this way: just because the two constructions convey basically the same meaning does not mean the its can be parsed the same way.

It must've been a powerful wizard to get around Gringotts.
He must’ve been a powerful wizard
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Aspara GusIt must've been a powerful wizard to get around Gringotts.He must’ve been a powerful wizard to get around Gringotts.
One is tempted to read the sentence the way the OP did, that "it" refers to the wizard that got around Gringotts and that "it" could therefore be replaced with "he". One runs into a problem when one gets to "to get", however. Standard
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