In English the word it is often a pleonastic subject. This means that it has no real meaning. It merely occupies subject position. However, in certain English sentences, the pleonastic subject is optional.
The sentence It is raining contains a pleonastic subject. Here the pronoun it merely serves to introduce the sentence. Compare this to the Spanish sentence Está lloviendo. Here the subject is empty and the sentence consists of the auxiliary verb and present participle.
English has an optional pleonastic subject in sentences which begin with the words today, tomorrow and yesterday. Here are examples:
Today it is rainy.
Today is rainy.
Tomorrow it will be my birthday.
Tomorrow will be my birthday.
Yesterday it was a beautiful day.
Yesterday was a beautiful day.
The deletion of the pleonastic subject does not occur with participles. It is possible in the sentence Today is rainy, but cannot be deleted in the sentence Today it is raining. The adjective rainy must be used with deletion of the pleonastic subject.
The pleonastic subject it occurs in many sentences. It has no real meaning because it does not replace a noun. In certain sentences, the pleonastic subject is optional and can be deleted.
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