Minor Word Classes Page 3

Uses of It

MINOR WORD CLASSES PAGE 3/3

In the section on pronouns, we saw that the word it is a third person singular pronoun. However, this word also has other roles which are not related to its pronominal use. We look at some of these other uses here.

When we talk about time or the weather, we use sentences such as:

What time is it?

It is four o'clock

It is snowing

It's going to rain

Here, we cannot identify precisely what it refers to. It has a rather vague reference, and we call this DUMMY IT or PROP IT. Dummy it is also used, equally vaguely, in other expressions:

Hold it!

Take it easy!

Can you make it to my party?

It is sometimes used to "anticipate" something which appears later in the same sentence:

It's great to see you

It's a pity you can't come to my party

In the first example, it "anticipates" to see you. We can remove it from the sentence and replace it with to see you:

To see you is great

Because of its role in this type of sentence, we call this ANTICIPATORY IT.

See also: Cleft Sentences

In each of the following sentences, indicate whether the highlighted word is pronoun it, dummy it, or anticipatory it.