Every English sentence needs a subject and a verb.

The only exceptions are imperatives:

• Go away.
• Sit down.
• Come here.

If we have no other subject, then we use "it" and "there". These are like placeholders. In this lesson, we will look at when we use these two words as the subject of a sentence.

It1. Time and Dates

• It is 4 o'clock.
• It is March 27th, 2017.
• It is Friday.
• It is 9 am.

2. Weather

• It is hot.
• It is rainy.
• It is raining.
• It is snowing.

3. Giving an opinion about a place

• It is hot here.
• It is nice there.
• It will be better when we get home.
• It was a great restaurant.

4. Giving an opinion followed by an infinitive (to + verb)

• It is hard to speak English.
• It is easy to ride a bike.
• It is interesting to fix cars.
• It is fun to go hiking.
• It will be fun to see my family.
• It was exciting to ride the roller coaster.
• It has been hard to be away from my family.

5. Giving an opinion followed by a gerund (verb-ing)

• It is hard speaking English.
• It is easy cooking with friends.

Note: #4 and #5 are the same, but the sentences in #4 are more common and sound more natural in English.

6. Talking on the phone or when we cannot see the other person

• Hello Sally. It's Michael.
• Mom the phone is for you. It is your friend Karen.
• Open the door. It is Tina.

There

1. Introducing a new topic

• There is a meeting tomorrow.
• There has been an earthquake.
• There is a new movie that I want to see.

2. With numbers and quantities

• There are 5 people in my family.
• There are 2 eggs in the fridge.
• There is a bottle of coke on the table.

Note: fridge = refrigerator

3. Giving location

• There is bank around the corner.
• There is a clothing store on Main Street.
• There are many museums in New York City.
• There used to be a movie theater here.

4. With indefinite pronouns

• There is nothing in the bag.
• There is someone at the door.
• There is nobody here.
• There is something on your face.
• There is somebody here to see you.
• There is nothing we can do for him.
• There is somebody waiting for you in the lobby.

Everything covered in this lesson is extremely important. You need to know everything in this lesson to speak English.