The Dummy It

The word "it" can be a subject (or dummy subject) in sentences about times, dates, and the weather (such as, It's raining) and in certain idioms (It's OK).

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Unlike the ordinary pronoun it, dummy it has no clear antecedent (the noun the pronoun refers to); it simply serves the grammatical function of giving the sentence a subject.

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What is the dummy it?

​. . .Like when talking about environmental conditions

• ​It is hot.

• It is late.

• It is still cold out.​

• It's 2 AM. Go to bed!

• It's fine. Don't worry about it. ​

• It's a shame, really.

• ​It's almost morning.

• ​Did it rain last night?

​Take a look at this sentence:

By choosing onions as the topping for his hot dog, it proves that he's a disgusting human.

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What is the subject?

What is the predicate?​

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Rewrite the sentence without the dummy it on the next slide. You may need to remove other non-essential words.

It's not a horrible sentence, but it can be written more directly. You don't need the "it."

Here's HOw I would have done it:

Choosing onions as the topping for his hotdog proves that he's a disgusting person.

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The complete subject is: Choosing onions as the topping for his hot dog, and that gerund (ing) prhase performs the verb prove.​

Subject | Subject

Some text here about the topic of discussion

Rewrite the following sentence without the dummy it.

I changed the subject to be a gerund phrase and put Romeo at the end.

​There's only one "correct" answer, so make sure that you punctuate, capitalize, and space correctly.