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On the CHAT site of LatinStackExchange there has been a debate on Latin impersonal verbs of the kind "pudet me" = "it shames me"/"I am ashamed". This included the role of "it". Then, the English "it", in "it rains". I thought that this is a subject; a pronoun standing in for "the sky"/"the cloud" i.e. "the cloud (it) rains".

Alternatively, "it" has been described as a "dummy subject" because "rains" is an intransitive verb, requiring no direct object — an explanation that is not entirely clear.

What is the role of "it" in "it rains"?

Segorian
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tony
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    "It" is a dummy subject, i.e. it's a semantically empty pronoun. – BillJ Nov 10 '23 at 11:47
  • ... which can also be stated as 'it's raining' is a mere variant of 'rain is falling'; while a young child may omit the subject ("Raining!") English prefers a subject. But there is no logical one. The short impersonal pronoun 'it' is hijacked to stand in as a meaningless slot-filler. The lesser of two evils. – Edwin Ashworth Nov 10 '23 at 15:05

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