Taking the focus off the subject: using impersonal 'it'

10.31 You often only want to mention one thing or fact in a clause. For example, you often want to focus on the type of information that is normally expressed by an adjective. But an adjective cannot stand alone as the subject of a clause. A common way of presenting information of this kind is to make the adjective the complement of 'be', with 'it' as the subject.

If you do not want to choose any of the clause elements as the thing you are going to talk about, you can use several structures with 'it' as subject.

'It' can be used:

• to describe a place or situation

It's lonely here.

• to talk about the weather or to say what the time is.

It had been raining all day.

It is seven o'clock.

These uses are often called the impersonal uses or 'it'.

10.32 In these uses, 'it' does not refer back to anything earlier in the speech or writing, and so it is different from the personal pronoun, which usually refers back to a particular noun group:

The sun kept changing everything as it moved across the sky.

Paris is special, isn't it?

For more information about personal pronouns, see the section beginning at paragraph 1.96.

Note that the pronoun 'it' can also be used to refer to a whole situation or fact which has been described or implied.

He's never come to see his son. It's most peculiar, isn't it?

It doesn't matter.

It's my fault.

10.33 'It' can also be used to introduce a comment on an action, activity, or experience. The subject 'it' refers forward to a 'to'-infinitive clause or a finite subordinate clause.

It costs so much to get there.

It was amazing that audiences came to the theatre at all.

This structure with 'it' allows you to avoid having a long subject, and to put what you are talking about in a more prominent position at the end of the sentence.

Describing a place or situation

10.34 If you want to describe the experience of being in a particular place, you can use 'it' followed by a link verb such as 'be', an adjective, and an adjunct of place.

It was very pleasant at the Hochstadts.

It was terribly cold in the trucks.

It's nice down there.

For more information about adjuncts of place, see the section beginning at paragraph 6.53.

Similarly, you can indicate your opinion of a situation using 'it', 'be', an adjective, and a clause beginning with 'when' or 'if'.

It's so nice when it's hot, isn't it?

Won't it seem odd if I have no luggage?

10.35 You can also use 'it' as the object of verbs such as 'like' and 'hate' to describe your feelings about a place or situation.

I like it here.

He knew that he would hate it if they said no.

Here is a list of common verbs that are used in this way:

adore dislike

enjoy hate

like loathe

love prefer

Talking about the weather and the time

10.36 You can describe the weather by using 'it' as the subject of a verb.

It's still raining.

It was pouring with rain.

It snowed steadily throughout the night.

The following verbs are used after 'it' to talk about the weather:

drizzle hail

pour rain

sleet snow

thunder

You can also describe the weather by using 'it' followed by 'be' and a complement. The complement can either be an adjective by itself, or an adjective followed by a noun referring to a period of time.

'Can I go swimming?'—'No, it's too cold.'

It was very windy.

It was a warm, sunny evening.

It's a lovely day, isn't it?

Here is a list of common adjectives that are used to describe the weather:

bitter blowy blustery boiling breezy chilly cloudy

cold cool damp dark dry fine foggy

freezing frosty hot humid icy light lovely

misty muggy rainy showery stormy sunny thundery

warm wet windy

Note that you can describe a change in the weather or light by using 'it' followed by 'get' and an adjective complement.

He put the top up because it was getting cold.

It's getting dark.

giving times and dates 10.37 You can say what the time, day, or date is by using 'it' followed by 'be' and a complement.

It's eight o'clock.

It's Saturday afternoon and all my friends are out.

It was July, but freezing cold.

emphasizing time 10.38 You can form many useful time expressions using a structure with 'it' followed by 'be' and a noun group referring to time. The use of this structure puts emphasis on the time of the event.

You can say when something happened using 'when'.

It was 11 o'clock at night when 16 armed men came to my house.

It was nearly midnight when Kunta finally slept.

You can say how long ago something happened using 'since'.

It's two weeks now since I wrote to you.

It was forty years since the war.

You can say how long the interval was between one event and another using 'before'.

It was ninety days before Rodin's search was over.

It was four minutes before half-time.

You can say how soon something will happen using 'to'.

It's two days to D-day.