<p>I keep messing up on the Dummy/Expletive Pronoun "IT" on the practice exams. </p>
<p>For example, I might consider an ambiguous "it" to be an expletive and miss the error.
Likewise, I might consider an expletive "it" to be ambiguous and mark it wrong when there is not error.</p>
<p>I read Silverturtle's guide and did some googling but didn't find any good tricks to distinguish the two.</p>
<p>My Question is:
Is there a trick (like a substitution) I could use to determine whether an "it" is a dummy/expletive pronoun?</p>
<p>What’s a dummy/expletive pronoun? </p>
<p>Is it used in this example:</p>
<p>IT is a wonder how so many people breeze through high school with relative ease and then struggle in college.</p>
<p>The “it” does not have a referent because it’s not supposed to. Is that what you are talking about?</p>
<p>^Yes, that’s what he is talking about.
Even though “it” as a dummy pronoun has no referent, in some cases it should refer to something.</p>
<p>Clauses following that act sort of like nouns do: “That you ate so much just an hour ago contradicts the fact that you’re still hungry.” Notice how “[t]hat you ate so much” acts as a subject whose verb is “contradicts.” It has the same form as the fact that. Taking this into account, one can correctly say that “It is recommended that you eat breakfast before a big test” could be logically changed to “That you eat breakfast before a big test is recommended.” Both forms are grammatically correct, but more common is the form with the dummy/expletive pronoun (“It is recommended . . .”). </p>
<p>So, the neat trick in some cases is to figure out what “it” logically refers to in the sentence. This “logical” referent is often a that . . . phrase or a to . . . phrase–e.g., “It is your responsibility to do your chores.” The infinitive (“to do”) can also stand as its own as a subject, just like the that . . . clause can: “To do your chores is your responsibility.”</p>
<p>In other cases, you just need to be familiar with the phrasing. For example, the clause “it is raining” is viewed as correct by those familiar with the phrase simply because it is familiar and accepted. “It” in this case refers to the weather, or, more generally, the general course or state of things.</p>
<p>Here are some examples of dummy pronoun use (with alternative sentences in parentheses):
“It seems to me that you are guilty.” (“That you are guilty appears in my mind/to my observation.” [“You seem weird” = “You appear weird in my mind”])
“It is wrong to kill a man.” (“To kill a man is wrong.”)</p>
<p>If it is not a dummy pronoun, it would have to have an explicit referent. For example, in the sentence “I like cheese; it is good,” “it” EXPLICITLY refers to “cheese.” Honestly, the distinction between a dummy pronoun with no grammatical referent (but a logical one) and a pronoun with an explicit referent should be obvious to you.</p>
<p>Thanks SOOO Much!!!</p>