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I am having difficulty in defining sentence elements in this sentence:

It takes two numbers to measure your needs but only one to measure mine.

If I modify the sentence to this:

To measure your needs takes two numbers but to measure mine only takes one.

Then it looks like the to-infinitive defines "It" in the first sentence.

So I think it becomes: Empty Subject + Verb + Object + Subject Complement, but I can't be sure. Is my logic correct? Which sentence element is the to-infinitive here?

Thank you.

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    Your first example is the extraposed version of your second one. The dummy pronoun "it" is subject, and "to measure your needs" is called an extraposed subject. The extraposed element doesn’t give the meaning (reference) of "it" but serves simply as a semantic argument of the VP.
    – BillJ
    Commented Apr 9, 2017 at 17:09
  • Exactly. That it is a fake subject, inserted by the Extraposition rule.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Apr 9, 2017 at 18:30
  • Thank you for your replies. @john, I have not seen it in any grammar source before, the basic elements are always mentioned as: subject, object, verb, adverbial and complement. I was trying to fit it into one of them. So, in this case, should I consider the "extraposed subject" as another type of sentence element?
    – witch
    Commented Apr 9, 2017 at 19:49
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    It's a very special-purpose sentence element, in this case. There are a whole lot more kinds; I'm afraid "the basic elements" you're referring to are usually just copied from somewhere else and not really understood by the people who copy and post them. Anybody can say absolutely anything about the English language, and if they say it definitely enough, such is the state of popular cluelessness that somebody will believe them.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Apr 9, 2017 at 19:53

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Your first example is the extraposed version of your second one. The dummy pronoun "it" is subject, and "to measure your needs" is called an extraposed subject. The extraposed element doesn’t give the meaning (reference) of "it" but serves simply as a semantic argument of the VP. –                                                                                                                   BillJ [comment] Apr 9, 2017

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