Timeline for Listen to it rain and look at it snow

8 events

when toggle format	what		by	license	comment
Apr 23, 2015 at 4:22	comment	added	John Lawler		(1) Sense verbs like listen and look can take either infinitives without to -- listen to it rain or gerunds -- listen to it raining. (2) The weather verbs rain, snow, hail, etc. have dummy it subjects.
Apr 23, 2015 at 4:14	comment	added	Michael Lorton		Yup, "Watch it snow" and "Watch it snowing" are equivalent and equally acceptable sentences. Strange, though, that you can say, "it is snowing", but not "it is snow" (that would mean that thing over there, the pile of white stuff, is snow).
Apr 23, 2015 at 3:46	comment	added	user49638		How about the following? 1) Listen to it raining. 2) Look at it snowing.
Apr 23, 2015 at 3:42	answer	added	WhatRoughBeast		timeline score: 1
Apr 23, 2015 at 3:02	answer	added	Michael Lorton		timeline score: 1
Apr 23, 2015 at 2:59	comment	added	Hot Licks		The use of "it" like that is likely confusing to someone learning English. But those are perfectly valid English sentences.
Apr 23, 2015 at 2:37	comment	added	Nicole		What exactly is your concern? Is there a word that bothers you? Yes, those phrases make sense and are used.
Apr 23, 2015 at 2:33	history	asked	user49638	CC BY-SA 3.0