Page 66 - اللغة الانجليزية

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.

Exercise:

In each of the following sentences, indicate whether the highlighted word is
pronoun it, dummy it, or anticipatory it.
1. It won't do any good to hide from me.

(a) Pronoun it (b) Dummy it (c) Anticipatory it

2. I think you have broken it.
(a) Pronoun it (b) Dummy it (c) Anticipatory it

3. It is very kind of you to show me at short notice.
(a) Pronoun it (b) Dummy it (c) Anticipatory it

4. It was after midnight when I left the office.
(a) Pronoun it (b) Dummy it (c) Anticipatory it

5. I’ve had it with this place; I’m leaving it!
(a) Pronoun it (b) Dummy it (c) Anticipatory it

6) Cleft Sentences

We use cleft sentences, especially in speaking, to connect what is already
understood to what is new to the listener. In a cleft sentence, a single
message is divided (cleft) into two clauses. This allows us to focus on the
new information.
Many times when we write we try to highlight or emphasis a particular
portion of a sentence. Sentences that are written in this fashion are
referred to as Cleft Sentences.

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