Expletive Pronouns in English

Today we’ll be talking about expletive pronouns, also known as dummy pronouns in less formal language. They differ from all the other pronouns in that they don’t have antecedents, so they don’t replace any noun phrase. They function as pronouns, but they have no reference and that’s why we call them dummy pronouns. They are used only to make a sentence grammatical.

There are only two expletive pronouns in English, IT and THERE. I already have an article on special uses of the pronoun IT where the pronoun is covered in detail, so make sure to read it too. I don’t want to repeat everything here, so let’s just have a look at the most important stuff and later we’ll have a look at the pronoun THERE.

The Pronoun IT

We use the dummy pronoun IT when we talk about weather, distance or time.

IT’s raining.

IT’s very hot.

IT’s a long drive to get there.

IT’s very far from Boston to Miami.

What time is IT?

IT was very late.

The pronoun IT is always used in singular. In the aforementioned article you can also read about other uses of IT, for example as anticipatory IT (functioning as subject and object), subject IT in cleft constructions and more. And you will find lots of examples there, so go read it now.

The Pronoun THERE

Let’s now discuss the other expletive pronoun, THERE. It’s used as the so-called existential THERE to say that someone or something exists in general or in a particular place. Here are some examples:

THERE’s a cat on the sidewalk.

THERE are so many reasons why I can’t do that for you.

THERE are some kids in the building.

THERE were two questions to be answered.

The pronoun THERE may be used in either singular (THERE is, THERE was, THERE’s been) or plural (THERE are, THERE were).

It’s also important to differentiate existential THERE from adverbial THERE. In the latter case THERE is used as an adverb, not as a pronoun and it has an antecedent. Have a look:

She likes this neighborhood. She’s lived THERE since 2015.

I wanted to take her to a movie theater, but she didn’t want to go THERE.

As you can see, in these sentences THERE functions as an adverb. In the first sentence it replaces the adverbial phrase in this neighborhood and in the second sentence it replaces the adverbial phrase to a movie theater. In neither sentence is it used as an existential THERE.

Unlike the pronoun IT, which can be used as a subject or object, THERE may be used only as a subject.