The dummy-it tag has no wiki summary.
27
votes
10answers
4k views
What does “it” refer to in “it's raining”?
I wanted to leave the question title as is so as not to take away from my amusement :).
Anyway,
It's raining.
What is raining? Is it the sky? The clouds? The weather? The rain? What is "it"? ...
3
votes
4answers
363 views
Avoiding “existential it” while referring to a past event?
I know the use of "existential it" is frowned upon, but I'm not entirely sure how to rephrase the following sentence to remove it:
It is hard to tell what would have occurred if the battle had ...
22
votes
7answers
1k views
Why “it’s turtles” not “they are turtles”
It is a third person singular and is used to refer to a thing. If that’s the case, then why do we say:
A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on ...
9
votes
2answers
448 views
Whence the “it” in “I like it here”?
What is the origin of the use of the object (it) in the following sentences, and what is its purpose?
I like it here!
and
Did you like it there?
In essence, the things we are saying we ...
1
vote
2answers
5k views
“What day is it today?” vs. “What day is today?”
Which of the following is grammatical?
What date/day is it today?
What date/day is today?
3
votes
4answers
265 views
It is an existential question
A question on another site asks, I have a laptop ... Now I am trying to install Windows 7 and it shows a message saying "Driver not found".
Whereupon a commenter asks, What is the "it" that shows ...
2
votes
3answers
76 views
The general 'it' [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What does “it” refer to in “it's raining”?
Whence the “it” in “I like it here”?
What is the grammatical term for ...
