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Subject:Re: It is . . . . . From:Betsy Maaks <bmaaks -at- FRAME -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 10 Aug 1995 15:17:05 CDT
At 09:11 8/10/95 EDT, you wrote:
>I've always wondered what the antecedent is in the sentence,
> "It's raining."
>The sentence makes perfect sense, everyone knows what it means,
>and I can't think of another way to say the same thing in half
>as many syllables. Is this use of "it" bad style or just an
>exception?
> Scott McD.
Scott,
The example you use is not the same usage as the previous "It is..." In
other languages, expressions about the weather use an impersonal structure
(think about it--we don't know who makes it rain):
Il pleut.
Also recognize that "It is raining" is the present perfect tense of "It
rains," where IT is the subject of the verb "is raining" or "rains."
Therefore, this sentence structure, although it looks the same, is NOT the
same as "It is a raindrop," where IT = raindrop.
Thanks for the opportunity to stand on my Verb Tense soap box.
Betsy Maaks
****************************************************************
Betsy Maaks + Frame Technology Corp.
312-266-3208 + Advanced Products
bmaaks -at- frame -dot- com + 441 W. Huron Street
+ Chicago, IL 60610
