{"id":73982,"date":"2020-04-14T05:23:58","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T05:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/?p=73982"},"modified":"2020-04-14T05:23:58","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T05:23:58","slug":"it-as-a-preparatory-subject-and-object","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/it-as-a-preparatory-subject-and-object\/","title":{"rendered":"It As A Preparatory Subject And Object"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When the <a href=\"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/subject-and-predicate\/\">subject<\/a> is a phrase that includes a gerund,\u00a0<b>it<\/b>\u00a0is used as a provisional subject to begin the sentence. Instead of saying \u2018Your trying to deceive us is no good\u2019, we generally say \u2018It is no good your trying to deceive us\u2019.<\/p>\n<h3>It + verb + subject complement + gerund phrase<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><b>It\u00a0<\/b>won\u2019t be any good\u00a0<b>my talking\u00a0<\/b>to him about it.<\/li>\n<li><b>It\u00a0<\/b>is no use\u00a0<b>trying\u00a0<\/b>to convince him.<\/li>\n<li><b>It\u00a0<\/b>was a tough job\u00a0<b>starting\u00a0<\/b>the car with such a weak battery.<\/li>\n<li><b>It<\/b>\u00a0is no fun\u00a0<b>having\u00a0<\/b>so many children to look after.<\/li>\n<li><b>It<\/b>\u00a0is just silly\u00a0<b>throwing\u00a0<\/b>away your chances just like that.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Grammar notes<\/h3>\n<p>It is often possible to replace the <a href=\"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/gerunds-ing-forms\/\">gerund<\/a> with an <a href=\"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/infinitive-phrases\/\">infinitive<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>It\u00a0<\/b>won\u2019t be any good\u00a0<b>for me to talk\u00a0<\/b>to him about it.<\/li>\n<li><b>It<\/b>\u00a0is no use\u00a0<b>for us to try\u00a0<\/b>to convince him.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some of these sentences can also be rewritten as <a href=\"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/exclamations\/\">exclamatory sentences<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>How silly of you<\/b>\u00a0to throw away your chances like that!<\/li>\n<li><b>What a\u00a0<\/b>difficult business it was to start the car with such a weak battery!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>It + verb + clause<\/h3>\n<p>When the subject is a <a href=\"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/clause-what-are-clauses-in-english\/\">clause<\/a>, the sentence usually begins with<b>\u00a0it<\/b>. Instead of saying \u2018That he was once a terrorist is true\u2019, we generally say \u2018It is true that he was once a terrorist\u2019.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>It\u00a0<\/b>does not matter whether it rains or not. (More natural than Whether it rains or not does not matter.)<\/li>\n<li><b>It\u00a0<\/b>is clear that he overheard our conversation. (More natural than That he overheard our conversation is clear.)<\/li>\n<li><b>It\u00a0<\/b>is quite evident that you are not really interested in the question. (That you are not really interested in the question is quite evident.)<\/li>\n<li><b>It\u00a0<\/b>is certain that he left the place in haste. (That he left the place in haste is certain.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Introductory it with seem<\/h3>\n<p>Introductory\u00a0<b>it<\/b>\u00a0is also used with verbs like\u00a0<b>seem, appear<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0<b>look<\/b>\u00a0when the subject is an infinitive phrase, a phrase with a gerund in it or a clause.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>It seemed\u00a0<\/b>strange to see him there.<\/li>\n<li><b>It appears\u00a0<\/b>possible that the two companies may merge.<\/li>\n<li><b>It appeared\u00a0<\/b>unwise to offend him.<\/li>\n<li><b>It looks\u00a0<\/b>improper to behave like that.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>It\u00a0<\/b>is sometimes used as a preparatory object. This happens when the object of a verb is an <a href=\"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/infinitive-phrases\/\">infinitive<\/a> expression or a clause with an adjective or noun complement.<\/p>\n<h3>Subject + verb + it + complement + infinitive\/clause<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>I consider\u00a0<b>it a privilege to have this opportunity<\/b>\u00a0of welcoming you.<\/li>\n<li>We think\u00a0<b>it odd that you never visit us\u00a0<\/b>these days.<\/li>\n<li>We deem\u00a0<b>it a privilege to have you here\u00a0<\/b>with us.<\/li>\n<li>I think it a\u00a0<b>pity that you could not attend\u00a0<\/b>the party.<\/li>\n<li>I find\u00a0<b>it difficult to talk to you<\/b>.<\/li>\n<li>He made\u00a0<b>it clear what he wanted<\/b>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Note that this structure is not normally used when there is no adjective or noun complement after the verb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When the subject is a phrase that includes a gerund,\u00a0it\u00a0is used as a provisional subject to begin the sentence. Instead of saying \u2018Your trying to deceive us is no good\u2019, we generally say \u2018It&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[251],"tags":[1563,2641],"class_list":["post-73982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar","tag-it-as-a-preparatory-subject","tag-preparatory-object"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73983,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73982\/revisions\/73983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}