"dummy subject" meaning in English

See dummy subject in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: dummy subjects [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} dummy subject (plural dummy subjects)
  1. (grammar) A word (in English, it or there) used as the subject of a sentence when the real subject is placed after the main verb, or when the subject is indefinite. Categories (topical): Grammar Synonyms: introductory subject, preparatory subject Translations (grammatical subject carrying no meaning of its own): loos onderwerp [neuter] (Dutch)
    Sense id: en-dummy_subject-en-noun-zfcijN-k Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Topics: grammar, human-sciences, linguistics, sciences

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for dummy subject meaning in English (1.6kB)

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  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dummy subjects",
      "tags": [
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  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {},
      "expansion": "dummy subject (plural dummy subjects)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
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          "langcode": "en",
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          "orig": "en:Grammar",
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          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "In the expression \"It's raining\", the word \"it\" is a dummy subject.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A word (in English, it or there) used as the subject of a sentence when the real subject is placed after the main verb, or when the subject is indefinite."
      ],
      "id": "en-dummy_subject-en-noun-zfcijN-k",
      "links": [
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        [
          "sentence",
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        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(grammar) A word (in English, it or there) used as the subject of a sentence when the real subject is placed after the main verb, or when the subject is indefinite."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "introductory subject"
        },
        {
          "word": "preparatory subject"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        "grammar",
        "human-sciences",
        "linguistics",
        "sciences"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "grammatical subject carrying no meaning of its own",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "loos onderwerp"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "dummy subject"
}
{
  "forms": [
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      "form": "dummy subjects",
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  "head_templates": [
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  "senses": [
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        "English lemmas",
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        "en:Grammar"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "In the expression \"It's raining\", the word \"it\" is a dummy subject.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A word (in English, it or there) used as the subject of a sentence when the real subject is placed after the main verb, or when the subject is indefinite."
      ],
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(grammar) A word (in English, it or there) used as the subject of a sentence when the real subject is placed after the main verb, or when the subject is indefinite."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "grammar",
        "human-sciences",
        "linguistics",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "introductory subject"
    },
    {
      "word": "preparatory subject"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "grammatical subject carrying no meaning of its own",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "loos onderwerp"
    }
  ],
  "word": "dummy subject"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.