
Can you start a sentence with 'it'? Of course. Do you want to? Maybe not.
Here’s a question a professional editor asked me a while back: “Is it true you can’t start a sentence with “it”?
We were at a conference, standing in a busy hallway among other people waiting to ask questions. So I didn’t have the time to ask: Where’d you hear that? What’s the thinking behind it? Have you actually followed that advice in your editing work?
There are a lot of people who’ve heard you can’t start a sentence with “and,” and many who’ve heard the same about “but” and “so.” Those prohibitions are fictional (In fact, “Garner’s Modern American Usage” calls the idea that you can’t start a sentence with “and,” “but,” or “so” a superstition). But the alleged “it” rule was a new one on me.
My answer was short: “It’s fine,” I said, not realizing until afterward that my answer was an example.
“It” is a pronoun, like “he,” “him,” “we,” “us,” “they,” “them,” etc. Pronouns head up sentences all the time. She is in the yard. I am in the yard. They are in the yard. It is in the yard.
So the answer was easy. But a few hours later I was thinking about the question and had a realization: The supposed rule, though wrong, might actually be rooted in a useful idea.
Look at the sentence, “It is John who ate the last piece of cake.” This is perfectly grammatical. The main subject is “it,” the main verb is “is.” The “Oxford English Grammar” calls this “the cleft it,” in which “the sentence is split to put the focus on some part of it.”
Compare that sentence with the simpler “John ate the last piece of cake” and you can see how “it is John” adds a different emphasis. But that emphasis comes at a price: extra words and the loss of vividness you get every time you replace a tangible subject and action-oriented verb like “John ate” with more the abstract “it is.”
In news writing especially, “John ate the last piece of cake” is considered better form than “It is John who ate the last piece of cake.”
I bet that’s the origin of the myth that plagued our editor friend.
Tags: COPY EDITING, PRONOUNS
This entry was posted on Monday, November 8th, 2021 at 2:47 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


- #AMWRITING
- #SpellCheckCannotSaveYou
- A AAA VS. AN AAA
- A HISTORIC VS AN HISTORIC
- A WHILE VS. AWHILE
- ABBREVIATIONS
- Acronym
- ACRONYM VS ABBREVIATION
- Acronym vs Initialism
- ACTION VERBS
- ACTIVE VERBS
- ACTIVE VOICE
- ACTUALLY
- ADJECTIVES
- ADRENALINE VS ADRENALIN
- ADVERBIAL
- ADVERBS
- ADVERSE AND AVERSE
- ADVERSE VS AVERSE
- ADVISOR vs. ADVISER
- AESTHETIC AND ESTHETIC
- AFFECT AND EFFECT
- AGGRAVATE AND IRRITATE
- AGGRAVATE VS IRRITATE
- AGREEMENT
- ALRIGHT ALL RIGHT
- AMN'T
- AMONG
- AMPERSAND
- an historic
- AND
- AND I VS AND ME
- ANTONYMS
- anxious vs eager
- ANYMORE ANY MORE
- ANYMORE VS ANY MORE
- AP STYLE
- apostrophe
- apostrophe abuse
- APOSTROPHE IN LETTER GRADES
- Apostrophe in Mothers Day
- Apostrophe in Presidents Day
- Apostrophe in Veterans Day
- APOSTROPHE PROTECTION SOCIETY
- APOSTROPHE VS SINGLE QUOTATION MARK
- APOSTROPHES
- apostrophes for form plurals
- APPEARANCE SAKE
- APPOSITIVE
- AREN'T I
- AS WELL AS
- ASPECT
- ATTRIBUTIVE NOUN
- ATTRIBUTIVE NOUNS
- AUXILIARY VERB
- AVOID ADVERBS
- AWHILE VS. A WHILE
- BAD ADVICE
- BAITED BREATH
- BARBECUE BARBEQUE
- BEACH GOER OR BEACHGOER
- beg the question
- beginning a sentence with and
- beginning a sentence with but
- BEGINNING SENTENCE WITH AND
- BEGINNING SENTENCE WITH CONJUNCTION
- BEGINNING SENTENCE WITH PRONOUN
- ben zimmer
- BENJAMIN DREYER
- BETWEEN
- BETWEEN SENTENCES
- BETWEEN YOU AND I
- BETWEEN YOU AND ME
- BIG WORDS
- bimonthly
- biweekly
- BOOK TITLES
- BOOK TITLES IN ITALICS
- BOOK TITLES IN QUOTATION MARKS
- BORED BY OR BORED OF OR BORED WITH
- BRING AND TAKE
- Bristol Punctuation Vigilante
- BRYAN GARNER
- BULLETED LISTS
- BURIED VERB
- CACHE
- CACHET
- CAN VS MAY
- CANNABUSINESS
- capitalization
- CAPITALIZE CITY NAMES
- CAPITALIZE DISHES
- CAPITALIZE MENU ITEMS
- CHAISE LONGUE
- CHANUKAH
- CHICAGO AP STYLE DIFFERENCES
- CHOMPING AT THE BIT
- CHOOSING SPECIFIC NOUNS AND VERBS
- CITE and SIGHT
- CLARITY
- CLATFART
- CLICHES
- CLITIC
- COLLECTIVE NOUNS
- COLON
- COLON VS. SEMICOLON
- Colons
- comma
- COMMA AFTER INC
- COMMA AFTER STATE
- COMMA AFTER YEAR
- COMMA BEFORE A TITLE
- COMMA BEFORE TOO
- COMMA IN IS IS
- COMMA SPLICE
- COMMAS
- commas around inc.
- COMMAS BETWEEN ADJECTIVES
- commas between coordinate adjectives
- COMMAS INSIDE QUOTATION MARKS
- COMMON SPELLING ERRORS
- COMMONLY CONFUSED EXPRESSIONS
- COMMONLY CONFUSED VERBS
- COMMONLY CONFUSED WORDS
- COMPARATIVE
- COMPARATIVES
- comparatives and superlatives
- COMPARE TO VS COMPARE WITH
- COMPARED TO COMPARED WITH
- COMPLIMENT AND COMPLEMENT
- COMPLIMENT VS. COMPLEMENT
- COMPOSE AND COMPRISE
- compound adjectives
- COMPOUND MODIFIER
- compound modifiers
- COMPOUND NOUN
- conjunctions
- CONJUNCTIVE LIKE
- CONTINUAL AND CONTINUOUS
- COORDINATE ADJECTIVES
- COPULAR VERBS
- copy editin
- COPY EDITING
- CORONAVIRUS SLANG
- COULD CARE LESS VS COULDN'T CARE LESS
- COULD OF and COULD HAVE
- COUPLE IS OR COUPLE ARE
- COUPLE IS VS. COUPLE ARE
- COVIDIOT
- DANGLER
- danglers
- DANGLING MODIFIER
- DANGLING PARTICIPLE
- dash
- DASH VS SEMICOLON
- DASH VS. COLON
- decimate
- decimate usage
- DECLARATIVE
- DECLARATIVE QUESTION
- DEFINITE ARTICLE
- DICTIONARIES
- DIFFERENT FROM VS DIFFERENT THAN
- DIRECT OBJECTS
- DISINTERESTED UNINTERESTED
- DISJUNCTS CONJUNCTS ADJUNCTS
- DO'S AND DON'TS
- done vs finished
- DOS AND DONTS
- DOUBLE NEGATIVE
- DOUBLE POSSESSIVE
- DOUBLE SPACING
- DREAMED VS DREAMT
- DUMMY OPERATOR
- EASILY CONFUSED WORDS
- EDITING
- EDITING NOTES
- EFFECTIVE WRITING
- EFFETE
- EGGCORN
- ellipses
- ELLIPSIS
- EM DASHES
- EMAIL E-MAIL
- EMAIL GREETINGS
- EMIGRATE AND IMMIGRATE
- EN DASH
- EN DASH VS EM DASH
- ENGLISH
- enormity
- ENSURE INSURE
- ETYMOLOGY
- EVACUATE
- EVERY DAY VS. EVERYDAY
- EXCLAMATION POINT
- EXCLAMATION POINTS
- EXISTENTIAL THERE
- FALSE RANGES
- FARTHER
- father's day
- faulty parallel
- FAULTY SENTENCE STRUCTURE
- FAZE and PHASE
- FIRSTLY
- FIVE BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURES
- FLAT ADVERBS
- FLESH OUT AND FLUSH OUT
- FOR CONSCIENCE SAKE
- FOR GOODNESS SAKE
- FORGO AND FORGO
- FORGO FOREGO
- FORGONE FOREGONE
- FORM TYPES OF VERBS
- FORWENT FOREWENT
- FRAUGHT VS FRAUGHT WITH
- FRIEND OF
- FURTHER
- Fused Participle
- GAUNTLET GANTLET
- GENERIC PRONOUN ONE
- GOER
- GOOD AND WELL
- GOOD SENTENCES
- GOOD VS WELL
- GOODNESS SAKE
- GRADUATE COLLEGE OR GRADUATE FROM COLLEGE
- GRAMM
- GRAMMAR
- GRAMMAR CHECKER
- GRAMMAR MYTH
- grammar peeves
- grammar phobia
- GRAMMAR TERMS
- GRAMMATICAL MOOD
- GRAY VS GREY
- GREAT AND WELL
- GREATLY
- GREETING
- GROGNARD
- HANGED VS HUNG
- HANUKKAH
- HARSH WRITING ADVICE
- HAVE GOT
- HE OR HIM
- HEALTH CARE HYPHENATED
- HEALTHCARE VS HEALTH CARE
- HEALTHFUL
- HEALTHY
- HELTER SKELTER
- HISTORIC VS HISTORICAL
- HOI POLLOI
- HOME IN VS HONE IN
- HOMO SAPIEN VS. HOMO SAPIENS
- HOMONYMS
- HOMOPHONES AND HOMOGRAPHS
- HOPEFULLY
- HOW TO PRONOUNCE KYIV
- HOW TO WRITE
- HOW TO WRITE BOOK TITLES
- how to write holidays
- HOW TO WRITE MOVIE TITLES
- HYPHEN
- HYPHENATING NOUNS
- HYPHENATING PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES
- HYPHENATING SUFFIXES
- HYPHENATING VERBS
- hyphenation
- hyphens
- I FEEL BAD VS I FEEL BADLY
- I FEEL BADLY
- I vs Me
- I-N-G VERBS
- IDIOMS
- if and whether
- IF VS WHETHER
- immigrate emigrate migrate
- IMPERATIVE
- imperatives
- IMPORTANTLY
- IN REGARDS TO
- INCOMPLETE SENTENCES
- INDEFINITE ARTICLES
- INDEFINITE PRONOUNS
- INDEXES INDICES
- INDIRECT OBJECT
- INDIRECT OBJECT PRONOUN
- insure vs ensure
- INTENSIFIER
- INTERROGATIVE
- INTO VS IN TO
- INTRANSITIVE VERBS
- INTRUSIVE OF
- IRREGARDLESS
- IRREGARDLESS AND REGARDLESS
- IRREGULAR NOUNS
- IS IS
- IS TEAM PLURAL OR SINGULAR
- ITALICS
- ITALICS VS. QUOTATION MARKS
- ITS AND IT'S
- JACOB REES-MOGG
- JARGON
- JOB TITLES
- john dowd
- John Le Carre
- JOHN MCINTYRE
- JONATHON OWEN
- Journalism Standards
- JUDGEMENT VS JUDGMENT
- KORY STAMPER
- LANGUAGE
- LAY AND LIE
- LAY IN STATE
- LEAD VS. LED
- LESS THAN
- less vs fewer
- LET'S AND LETS
- LET'S EAT GRANDMA
- LEXICOGRAPHY
- LIE IN STATE
- lighted vs lit
- LIGHTED VS. LIT
- LIKE
- LIKE AND AS
- LIKE AND SUCH AS
- LINKING VERBS
- LITERALLY
- LOAN VS LEND
- LOG IN VS LOGIN
- LY ADVERBS
- MAJORITY
- MANAFORT
- MANIKIN MANNEQUIN
- MANNER ADVERBS
- MARY NORRIS
- MAY VS. MIGHT
- ME VS I
- MERRIAM
- METACONCEPTS
- MIKE POMPEO
- MODAL AUXILIARY
- MODALITY
- modifying phrases
- MOOD
- MORE THAN
- MOST COMMON APOSTROPHE ERRORS
- MOST COMMON GRAMMAR ERRORS
- Most common grammar mistakes
- mother's day
- MOVIE TITLES
- MYRIAD VS A MYRIAD OF
- MYRIAD VS. MYRIAD OF
- MYSELF
- MYSELF VS. ME
- NAMES
- NATIONAL GRAMMAR DAY
- NEEDLESS WORDS
- NEOLOGISMS
- NEVER MIND / NEVERMIND
- NEW WORDS
- NEW YEAR'S
- no problem
- NOMINALIZATION
- NOMINALIZATIONS
- NONBINARY THEY
- NONCE WORD
- NONE IS VS NONE ARE
- NONPLUSSED
- NONRESTRICTIVE CLAUSES
- NOUNS AS ADJECTIVES
- NOUNS ENDING IN S
- object complement
- OBJECT PRONOUN
- OBJECT PRONOUNS
- OBJECT VS SUBJECT PRONOUNS
- OBJECTS AND SUBJECTS
- obscenity
- OED
- OK OKAY
- OLIVER TWIST
- OMIT NEEDLESS WORDS
- ONE SPACE
- ONE SPACE AFTER A PERIOD
- ONE SPACE OR TWO BETWEEN SENTENCES
- ONLY
- ONTO VS ON TO
- OR
- OVER
- OVER AND UNDER
- oxford comma
- OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY
- PALETTE PALATE PALLET
- PALM OFF VS. PAWN OFF
- PARALLEL STRUCTURE
- PARENTHESES
- PARTICIPIAL PHRASES
- PARTS OF SPEECH
- PASSIVE VOICE
- past participles
- past tense
- PAST TENSE OF LAY
- PAST TENSE OF LIGHT
- PAST TENSE OF SLAY
- period before a quotation mark
- PERIODS IN INITIALS
- PERIODS IN PHD
- PERIODS INSIDE QUOTATION MARKS
- PERSONAL PRONOUNS
- PERUSE
- PETER SOKOLOWSKI
- PHRASAL VERBS
- PIQUE
- placement of only
- plead pled
- PLURAL
- PLURAL OF ATTORNEYS GENERAL
- PLURAL POSSESSIVE
- PLURAL POSSESSIVES
- PLURAL POSSESSIVES OF PROPER NOUNS
- PLURAL VERB
- PLURAL VERB WITH AS WELL AS
- PLURAL VERBS
- PLURALS
- PLURALS OF LATIN WORDS
- PLURALS OF LETTERS
- PLURALS OF MOVIE TITLES
- POSSESSIVE
- Possessive with Gerund
- possessives
- POSSESSIVES OF MOVIE TITLES
- POSSESSIVES OF PROPER NAMES
- PREDICATE NOMINATIVE
- prefixes
- PREPOSI
- PREPOSITIONS
- PRESCRIPTIVISM
- PREVENTATIVE
- PREVENTIVE
- PRINCIPAL AND PRINCIPLE
- PRINCIPLE and PRINCIPAL
- profanity
- PRONONCIATION
- PRONOUN ANTECEDENT AGREEMENT
- PRONOUNS
- pronunciation of often
- proofreading
- PUNCTUATION
- PUT A COMMA BEFORE TOO
- QUASI COORDINATOR
- QUASI POSSESSIVES
- QUESTION MARK
- quotation marks
- raise the question
- RANG RUNG
- RANGES
- READER FRIENDLY LANGUAGE
- REDUPLICATIVE COPULA
- REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS
- REFLEXIVES
- REIGN VS REIN
- REIN vs REIGN
- RELATIVE PRONOUN ANTECEDENT AGREEMENT
- RELATIVE PRONOUNS
- RESTRICTIVE CLAUSES
- ROB AND BURGLARIZE
- ROCK N ROLL
- RUN-ON SENTENCES
- RUTH BADER GINSBURG
- SCARE QUOTES
- SECONDLY
- SEMICOLON
- SEMICOLON ABUSE
- SEMICOLONS
- semimonthly
- semiweekly
- SENTENCE ADVERBS
- sentence diagramming
- SENTENCE ENDING PREPOSITION
- SENTENCE ENDING PREPOSITIONS
- SENTENCE FRAGMENT
- SENTENCE FRAGMENTS
- SENTENCE STRUCTURE
- SENTENCE STRUCTURES
- SENTENCE WRITING
- SENTENCES
- serial comma
- SHARED POSSESSIVE
- SHARED POSSESSIVES
- SIMPLE COMPOUND AND COMPLEX SENTENCES
- SINCE VS BECAUSE
- SINCE VS. BECAUSE
- SINGLE QUOTATION MARK
- SINGULAR AUSPICE
- SINGULAR VERB
- SINGULAR VERB WITH EVERY
- SINGULAR VS PLURAL
- SITE
- SKUNKED TERMS
- SLAVA UKRAINI
- SLEIGHT VS SLIGHT
- SLOW VS. SLOWLY
- SMIZE
- SNEAK PEAK VS SNEAK PEEK
- SNEAK VS. SNUCK VS. SNEAKED
- SO
- spaces around ellipses
- SPEECH TAGS
- spell check fail
- SPELL-CHECKER
- SPELLING
- SPITTING IMAGE
- split infinitive
- SQUINTING MODIFIER
- STARTING A SENTENCE WITH AND
- STEPHEN CALK
- STYLE
- STYLE GUIDES
- SUBJECT PRONOUNS
- SUBJECT VERB AGREEMENT
- SUBJECT-COMPLEMENT AGREEMENT
- SUBJECT-OBJECT AGREEMENT
- SUBJUNCTIVE
- SUBORDINATE CLAUSES
- SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS
- suffixes
- SUPERLATIVES AND COMPARATIVES
- SWAM VS. SWUM
- SYNONYMS
- TENSE SHIFTS
- terminal punctuation
- THAN I VS THAN ME
- THANKSGIVING DAY
- THAT AND WHICH
- THAT VS. WHICH
- THE JOY OF SYNTAX
- The Possessive of Jr.
- THE REASON IS BECAUSE
- THE REASON WHY
- THE TEAM IS VS THE TEAM ARE
- THE WIRE
- THERE ARE
- THERE IS
- THERE'S
- THESE ONES
- THEY'RE AND THEIR
- THIS IS SHE
- THRU THROUGH
- TILL TIL UNTIL
- TITLED VS ENTITLED
- TITLES IN ITALICS
- TITLES IN QUOTATION MARKS
- TOWARD VS. TOWARDS
- TRANSITIVE
- TRANSITIVE VERBS
- TRUMP SPELLING
- TRUMP TWEET
- TRY AND
- TRY TO
- TWO SPACE
- TYPOS
- UNCLEAR ANTECEDENTS
- UNDERLIE PAST TENSE
- UNDERWAY / UNDER WAY
- UNNECESSARY ADVERBS
- UPSIDE DOWN SUBORDINATION
- USAGE
- VAGUE WORDS
- VERB CONJUGATION
- VERB TENSES
- VERBS
- veterans day
- VIS-A-VIS
- vocabulary
- WAS VS WERE
- WEBSTER'S NEW WORLD
- WEIRDEST LANGUAGES
- WELLBEING
- WERE VS WAS
- What Does Hoi Pollio Mean
- When to Capitalize After a Colon
- WHEN TO HYPHENATE PREFIXES
- WHILE VS ALTHOUGH
- WHO AND WHOM
- WHO KNOWS
- who vs whom
- WHOA WOAH WHOAH
- whom
- whomever
- WHOSE AND WHO'S
- WITH VS. OF
- WORD CHOICE
- WORD USAGE
- WRITING
- WRITING BOOKS
- WRITING CRAFT
- WRITING FOR CLARITY
- WRITING SKILLS
- WRITING STYLE
- WRITING TIPS
- XMAS
- ZEGUMA
- ZERO RELATIVE PRONOUN
search
podcast
Ad Podcast to your site
A Pearson product. Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Permissions