Usos de «it»

1. Where’s my map? I left it on the table; Look at that bird. It always comes to my window; Her new baby is tiny. It only weighs 2 kilos.

[«it» se usa para hablar de una cosa o un animal cuyo sexo no conocemos y, a veces, un bebé o un niño pequeño.]

2. «ANN (on phone): Who is that? / Who is it?» «BILL: It’s me.» «Is that Tom over there? – No, it’s Peter.

[«it» puede aplicarse a personas en frases como las de arriba.]

3. «What time is it? – It’s six»; «What’s the date; – It’s the third of March»; «How far is it to York? – It’s 400 kms»; «How long does it take to get there? – It depends on how you go». It’s raining; It’s snowing; It’s freezing. It’s frosty. It’s a fine night. It’s full moon tonight. In winter it’s / it is dark at six o’clock. It’s hot/cold/quiet/noisy in this room. It’s high tide; It’s low tide.It’s / It is since I saw him (= «I haven’t seen him for three years»).

[«it» puede usarse en expresiones de tiempo cronológico, distancia, tiempo meteorologico, temperatura o referido a la marea.]

4. It was ‘Peter who lent us the money (not Paul); It’s today that he’s going (not tomorrow). It’s ‘pilots that we need, not ground staff.

[«it» puede introducir «oraciones escindidas» («cleft sentences«). Se usa incluso con un verbo en plural.]

5. It is easy to criticize (NO: «To criticize is easy»*); It is better to be early (NO: «To be early is better»*); It seems a pity to give up now (NO:»To give up now is a pity»*). He thought (that) it (would be) better to say nothing; We found it impossible to get visas.

[Cuando un infinitivo es sujeto de una frase, se empieza la frase con «it» y se añade el infinitivo más tarde. Si ‘ «it» + «be» ‘ va precedido de «find»/»think» («that») suelen omitirse «be» y «that» («We found it impossible to get visas.»)]

6. «That he hasn’t phoned yet is odd» (BETTER:» It’s odd that he hasn’t phoned yet»);» that prices will go up is certain (BETTHER::It’s certain that the prizes will go up.»). «It never occurred to me that perhaps he was lying»; «It struck me that everyone was as unusually sient.

[«it» se usa de la misma forma cuando el sujeto de una oración es una claúsula.. Arriba, las segundas opciones son las mejores.]

7. «He smokes in bed, though I don’t like it» («it»= his smoking in bed); «He suggested flying, but I thought it would cost too much»

[«it»/»this» pueden tener valor anafórico, representar una frase, claúsula o palabra previamente mencionadas.]

8. it seems; it appears; it looks; it happens

[«it» puede funcionar también como sujeto de verbos impersonales.]