Dummy subjects in English: it's raining, there's a problem, and why the subject slot is never empty

Try to say is raining in English, as a whole sentence, and the grammar simply refuses. Spanish manages fine with llueve, Italian with piove, Mandarin with one word for rain falling - but English demands a subject in front of every verb, even when nothing on earth is doing the action. So the language keeps two professional seat-fillers for the job: it and there. Grammars call them dummy subjects, or empty subjects, and between them they cover some of the most common sentences you will ever say.

The rule underneath is short enough to memorise as it stands: an English sentence never leaves the subject position empty. Everything on this page is what English does to obey it.

it for weather, time, distance and temperature

The dummy it owns four territories:

In none of these does it refer to anything. There is no thing doing the raining, no object that "is" Tuesday. Learners sometimes hunt for the meaning of it in these sentences, and the honest answer is that there is none: the verb needed a subject, and it was the cheapest one available.

This matters for your own sentences because the temptation is to drop the subject the way your first language may allow: Is raining, Is very cold today, Was late when we arrived. Every one of those needs an it, and leaving it out is one of the fastest ways for writing to read as non-native. If the verb is there, the subject must be too.

The only genuine exceptions are informal speech and messages, where English speakers clip the front of a sentence: Looks like rain. Sounds good. That is deliberate compression of It looks like rain, and it belongs to texts and conversation, not to anything formal.

there for existence

The second dummy subject does one job: it announces that something exists, or is present, usually for the first time.

• There's a problem with the car.
• There are two banks on the high street.
• There was nobody at home.
• There's no milk left.

The real subject - the thing that exists - comes after the verb, and the verb agrees with it: there is a message, there are three messages, there were no seats. Spoken English flattens this to there's before plurals constantly (there's three messages for you), and you should recognise it when you hear it, but in writing keep the agreement honest.

Two details worth having. First, there survives into the question tag: There's a problem, isn't there? - see question tags for why that is unusual. Second, whether you say there is or there are after a list depends on the first item: There's a table and four chairs, because a table is what the verb meets first.

it or there?

Here is the choice that actually trips learners, because many languages use one construction where English uses two.

There introduces; it refers back. Use there to bring something new onto the stage, and it once the thing is already known:

• There's a car outside. It's my neighbour's.
• There's a message for you. It's from the bank.

Cross them over and the sentence goes wrong in a way every native speaker hears instantly. It's a problem with the engine, said out of nowhere, is the learner version of There's a problem with the engine. The test is simple: if you could naturally follow the sentence with "...that you didn't know about", you are announcing existence, and you want there.

French and Spanish speakers should watch this one closely: il y a and hay both translate to there is / there are, never to it is. And the other direction matters too - it has is not an existence verb in English. In my town it has many restaurants is a direct transfer that English does not accept: In my town there are many restaurants.

it as a placeholder for a clause

The dummy it has a second, subtler job. When the real subject of a sentence is a whole clause - to say no, that she left - English prefers not to start with something that heavy. So it parks it in the subject slot and moves the real subject to the end:

• It's hard to say no to her. (= To say no to her is hard.)
• It takes two hours to get there.
• It's strange that nobody called.
• It seems that we were wrong.
• It turned out that the door was open all along.

The front-loaded versions are grammatical - To say no to her is hard - but they sound formal and top-heavy, and English speakers reach for the it version nearly every time. The pattern runs on a small set of verbs and adjectives you already know: it seems, it appears, it happens, it turns out; it's hard, it's easy, it's possible, it's clear, it's a shame.

Keep this placeholder it separate from one lookalike: the it that starts a cleft sentence like It was John who broke the window. That it is doing a different job - pointing a spotlight, not filling a seat - and it has its own page at cleft sentences.

Common mistakes

Ranked by how often learners actually make them.

1. Dropping the subject. Is raining, Is important to arrive early. Every finite verb needs its subject: It's raining, It's important to arrive early.
2. it is for existence. It's a problem with the engine when the problem is news. Announcing existence takes there: There's a problem with the engine.
3. it has for there is. In this city it has a lot of traffic should be there is a lot of traffic. English never uses have to say that something exists somewhere.
4. Agreement after there. There is three messages should be there are three messages in writing, however often you hear the spoken shortcut.
5. Starting with a heavy clause. That she didn't call is strange is grammatical but stiff. English prefers It's strange that she didn't call.
6. Answering what does it mean? In it's raining, it means nothing. Stop looking for the referent; there isn't one.

Practice

Write it or there (with the right form of be where needed). Answers are below.

1. ___ nearly midnight when the phone rang.
2. ___ a light on in the kitchen. Is somebody home?
3. How far is ___ from the hotel to the beach?
4. ___ no easy way to say this.
5. ___ seems that we have a problem.

Answers: 1. It was (time) 2. There was / There is (existence) 3. it (distance) 4. There is (existence) 5. It (placeholder for that we have a problem)

Dummy subjects lean hard on the verb be, and the agreement rules that govern there is and there are start with knowing which nouns count and which do not - that is countable and uncountable nouns. And for the spotlight it of It was John who said it, see cleft sentences.