What Are 'Dummy' Subjects? | Natural English Grammar
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2015
- Dummy subjects are used to change the order and the focus of a sentence.
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Ian Schellenberg is an English teacher and teacher trainer in Vancouver, Canada with a passion for languages. He enjoys learning and teaching all of the fine nuances of any language. Ian is an expert in pronunciation and the history of English.
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Easy to understand! Thank you very much!!!!
Thank you so much for the explanation!
As always, clear, concise and to the point. I find your lessons extremely useful and reliable. Best from Poland.
Many thanks for the explanation!!!
That was the simplest most comprehensive explanation I've ever heard. THANK YOU isn't enough to describe how grateful I am for this video
Bro , your Grammar is Perfect , loved your teaching style
Thank you Ian, you explained very well this subject and I like how you motivate your students.
Great lesson! Thank you very much and greetings from Brazil
Thank you so much for the video!
Thanks so much for make it less confusing sir .
Best regards .
It was such an interesting video lol
I think this was the best example I could find about dummy subjects, I have a few students that asked about the use of it
Do you have a video on dummy verbs?
Thanks for the class!
Great. Thank you.
Very well explained...Thanks
It was very helpful to watch this video. Thanks a lot.
+mfjardim It's no problem! Excellent example sentence, by the way!
it was very clear your explanation .
Thanks so very much!!
Great tip
You couldn't have explain better, tks a lot!
Nice vid! Only thing I'll disagree on is that you can use locational "there" at the beginning of a sentence in these cases: "There he is!" "There it is!" / "Here he is!" "Here it is!"
Wow awesome 😍 such a great lesson
It was a good video to watch .it helped me a lot to learn dummy subject.
Idk if you're still here, but I wanted to let you know that your explication was so clear and funny. Thanks for helping. ❤️
Muito bom aprendi como usar o dummy it agora 👏❤🇧🇷🇺🇸
wow great sir
I want learn English but I need such a guy who can talk with me and he should be native speaker
3:21 - most useful part for me
Thank youu
Thank you for this video.Now I understand dummy subject.Please Is there a difference between the dummy subject and the impersonal subject or they are the same????
sometimes it is implicit and absent, like in "it sometimes rains after snowing" - "it sometimes rains after it snows" or "it seems that Jennifer loves to sing" - "Jennifer seems to love singing".
Fruitful👍👍👍
It was perfect
não estuda mais português? vi num vídeo anterior
Respected sir, being undisputedly the greatest grammarian of this generation, you are earnestly entreated with folded hands to let me know whether the following Cleft sentences are Noun Clause, Adjective clause or Adverbial Clause -(A)It was yesterday when we met him (B)It was yesterday that we met him (C) It was last Saturday that we met him (D)It was last Saturday when we met him.
Can I find a way to contact you?
If u wanna know more than that, try to use the Practical English grammar and it would be very helpful. My first experience with part of speech was really bapstim by 🔥🔥 but when I used that book, I never get any problem at all.
Moroccan university English student. 🇲🇦🇲🇦🇲🇦🇲🇦🤝
Great sir but I have a question.
You've done it.
Where "it" refers to here?
Please
It is nice sir. I want to speak English like a native speaker so give instructions please.
It was a wonderful video, There is a teacher on the planet who is the creator of #likeanativespeaker.
Sir, please send the PDF of your lecture
Can I find a way to contact you?
There is a garden. Which is the subject and which is the predicate?
vut what is for a specific thing?
I’d like to see a example of there in the end of a sentence, about location.
Because I committed the same mistakes.
I heard Florida is beautiful, but I'll never go there.
Please help because it's very confusing.🙏🙏
1 The first obvious example is the case where 'there' is given a Riemannian metric on M
And you have also taught in lesson
After "there" a action verb can not come but
Above a action verb have come .
sentence
2 "It is Peter who there is gone "
Please explain it sir
Dummy "it" is there to put focus on the *adjective*... hm. Where did that idea come from? And how would you analyse an example such as "It never occurred to me that you could do it this way" then...?
Question:
When should I finish a phrase using "with"?
+Davi Santos I'm not exactly sure what you mean. Do you mean finishing a sentence with 'with'? or a particular phrase? Also, what purpose do you want for 'with'?
+LikeANativeSpeaker Sometimes watching series and tv shows I heard some sentences finishing a sentence with 'with', like "It has been a good question to begin with" or "My friends are all busy, so I have no one to play with." and I'd like to know better how to use or "with" works
+Davi Santos Okay! I understand the question better now. They're using verbs that need a preposition 'with'. A basic example is "I want to play with you" 'With' is used to show a connection to someone or something else. So your second example uses it at the end of the sentence (something which is actually against the rules, you're not supposed to put a preposition at the end of a sentence. But everyone does). Without 'with' the sentence would change meaning. "...so I have no one to play" sounds like people are a sport or instrument to play.
Another example: "I want to go to the mall, but only if I have someone to go with." Using 'with' here shows that connection, or togetherness.
Your first example is a little different. 'begin with' is commonly used with discussions and conversations, while 'begin' is used for actions.
For example:
"Alright students, let's begin class."
+LikeANativeSpeaker, thank you very much! You help me :-)
+Davi Santos In English there is what is known as phrasal verbs which is a verb + preposition or a particle, here are some examples.."She handed it in".."We have to look forward". "Where do they want to hang out?"."Don't give up".."She likes to dress down".
Thanks for this video. When you’re as close to the state exam as I am, you end up watching these cause you can’t see books anymore 😂😂
❤🇧🇷
Excuse me , I have a simple suggestion. ..it Will be helpful if you attach writing or write what you explain .
I am conservative in your explanation that the dummy subject does not refer to anything. The "It" is dummy but does refer to the real subject "to learning English".
Hi
I am confused about one thing and want to ask a question about that.
When should I use dummy subjects?
I mean, for example,
I saw following example
'There are five Dutch people in our' village. '
When I say ' Five Dutch people are in our village.'
What's the meaning difference between two sentences above?
You'd be really helping me out.
no difference in meaning; there's just a slight nuance that isn't "exactly" important - as it were - if you simply wish to convey a message. as the teacher explained, the use of the deictic pronoun 'there' puts more emphasis on the 'existence' part as opposed to 'the number of people that dwell in the said village'. you just want to convey that a few people exist in the village; it's not empty and the number may or may not be important. the second one specifically stresses the 'number of people' that exist in the village. also, from what I've seen, the second one is more commonly used in literature to add a dramatic effect (although the words are rejiggled a bit). in spoken english, however, the first one sounds more natural to the ears, which is why we see such frequent use of that structure. as for 'when to use it', that honestly depends on the context and which part you wish to accentuate as the speaker/writer (take the above explanation as an example). usually, we use it when there's no clear subject and we want to talk about the existence of something (in reference to time, dates, a given situation and such).
eg - time: it was five in the morning when I woke up (basically [it] means - when I woke up the time was five in the morning)
eg - date: how many days has it been since the wedding? (basically [it] means - how many days have passed since the wedding)
eg - situation: there are much better things humans can do in life than worry about what others feel about them (basically [there] means - a human can do much better things in life than worry about what others feel about them)
as you may have noticed, the dummy pronouns do not 'exactly' mean something. think of them as agents that allow us to fill certain gaps. quite obviously, if you said "__ was five in the morning when I woke up", it would make no sense. you need a subject to fill that gap.
hope this helps! (not sure if you'll see this, lol, since it's been 9 months already)
Question: How to say: 'There are 10 trees here' or Here are 10 trees here?'
+алексей заровный Your first sentence is correct. "There are 10 trees here." 'There' is acting as the dummy subject, talking about existence. 'here' is telling the location.
In the second sentence, 'here' cannot be used as a subject this way. Only 'there' can be used as a dummy subject.
Think of 'there' - dummy subject and 'there' - location as two different words with different uses and different meanings. They just look and sound the same because English is crazy sometimes! :P
LikeANativeSpeaker Thank you.
Hi I don't really understand
Please replace this sentence with “Dummy subject” and with
gerund:
To point out on others' flaw is easy. To notice one's
own is a difficult matter.