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It is raining.

Jayhawker Soule

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Premium Member
Does anyone know of a reasonably good book on the English language, one that covers such things as gerunds and participles and the classification of "it" in "It is raining"?
 

Jainarayan

ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय
Staff member
Premium Member
You may find something in here, but no guarantees:

LINGUIST List | Ask-A-Linguist Message Details
The English Progressive Verb
Pro-drop language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"It" is used in any verb tense or aspect because English is not a "pro-drop" language. That is, English needs to use a subject pronoun. "It" is the (remnant) neuter subject pronoun for the 3rd person singular. Many ESL speakers will use the wrong pronoun because their native language is pro-drop. Italian ESL speakers will often say "She's broke, she's no work" because "è rotto, non funziona" literally means "is broke, not works".

Copernicus can give much more detailed information. I believe he is a professional linguist; he probably has access to resources. I'm just a geek.
 

Jayhawker Soule

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Premium Member
It is a pleonastic subject. What I'm interested in a a text that addresses such things in an easily understandable manner.
 
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