Undefined pronoun

[NotWise]

I wrote this sentence before I thought twice:

"It was almost midnight when we landed at the small airport at home."

"It" is the time of day. There's nothing to define the pronoun, but I think the usage is widely understood. Is there anything actually incorrect about the style or grammar? I usually edit it out when I find it, but I wonder.

The sentence became:

"The clock over the concourse said it was nearly midnight when we deplaned in our little airport at home."

I think that's an improvement, and it seems to me like all replacements of the undefined "it" might improve the work.

 

[caleb35]

I wrote this sentence before I thought twice:

"It was almost midnight when we landed at the small airport at home."

"It" is the time of day. There's nothing to define the pronoun, but I think the usage is widely understood. Is there anything actually incorrect about the style or grammar? I usually edit it out when I find it, but I wonder.

The sentence became:

"The clock over the concourse said it was nearly midnight when we deplaned in our little airport at home."

I think that's an improvement, and it seems to me like all replacements of the undefined "it" might improve the work.

I think you're first sentence is fine as is and reads better than the revised sentence. "It was almost [stated time]" is a common enough phrase that I think everyone will accept it without thinking twice.

EDIT: if you really don't like the first sentence, though, try this: "We landed around midnight at the small airport near our home." Changes from passive to active. Big point being, unless the time that they landed is important to the story, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[YmaOHyd]

Is there anything actually incorrect about the style or grammar?

Nope! It, pron, OED:

As the non-referential subject of a verb or impersonal statement, expressing action or a condition of things simply, without reference to any agent.

That's how you're using it. It's a non-referential pronoun that expresses a state of being used to express time. For example, in Pilgrim's Progress:

It was almost night.

 

[SimonDoom]

I wrote this sentence before I thought twice:

"It was almost midnight when we landed at the small airport at home."

"It" is the time of day. There's nothing to define the pronoun, but I think the usage is widely understood. Is there anything actually incorrect about the style or grammar? I usually edit it out when I find it, but I wonder.

The sentence became:

"The clock over the concourse said it was nearly midnight when we deplaned in our little airport at home."

I think that's an improvement, and it seems to me like all replacements of the undefined "it" might improve the work.

I don't agree. I think this is an example of overthinking. "It was almost midnight" is a standard, conventional--and correct--way of expressing something. An author should feel no obligation to rephrase it in a fancier way.

I prefer your first sentence. The second sentence, to me, seems contrived. Clocks don't say things. They're clocks. They're inanimate objects. They don't speak.

Your second sentence is longer. It seems unnecessarily long to me. The second sentence takes longer to express the same thought as the first sentence.

I might get rid of "at home" and instead insert "home-town" before the word "airport." I think "small" and "little" are unnecessary. "At home" seems, to me, to be uncomfortably juxtaposed next to "airport," because the airport is not at your home, which most people think of as your house.

You could say something like "The clock struck midnight when our plane landed." Presumably, the reader is aware up to that point that the narrator is returning to his/her home town, and that the plane will land at an airport, so it would seem to be unnecessary to point out that the landing took place at an airport and that the airport was located in the narrator's home town. But context obviously is crucial.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

That's not the part of the sentence that sounds awkward. "at the small airport at home" sounds just plain silly, no offense. Unless those characters in the story actually have a private airport at their home?

 

[TheLobster]

This is called a dummy pronoun. There’s nothing wrong with it, and you’re certainly not a dummy for using it

The reason it’s necessary because English always requires a sentence to have a subject and doesn’t allow dropping pronouns. Languages like Spanish do not have this issue.

In other words, this isn’t at all a problem by itself, other than perhaps the fact that overuse of “it was” gets noticeable after a while. Thankfully, as other pointed out, there are plenty of alternatives. (See what I did there?)

 

[old_prof]

That's not the part of the sentence that sounds awkward. "at the small airport at home" sounds just plain silly, no offense. Unless those characters in the story actually have a private airport at their home?

I actually had the same reaction.

 

[NotWise]

Well, @SimonDoom, et al., "home-town airport" it is.

 

[Inkognito1]

It's about time someone brought this up.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

"It was almost midnight when we landed at the small airport at home."

The pronoun is perfectly fine. It was also a dark and stormy night.

The 'small airport at home' sounds awkward though.

 

[TheWorldBuilder]

For cumbersome, try "The local civil time was...."

 

[Britva415]

Is there anything actually incorrect about the style or grammar?

No.

"It" really is just as simple as that.

For all the shit Sir Bulwer-Lytton has gotten, none of it was about how "It was a dark and stormy night."

I guess that refers to "the night," but "it rained" wouldn't have raised any eyebrows either.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I wrote this sentence before I thought twice:

"It was almost midnight when we landed at the small airport at home."

"It" is the time of day. There's nothing to define the pronoun, but I think the usage is widely understood. Is there anything actually incorrect about the style or grammar? I usually edit it out when I find it, but I wonder.

The sentence became:

"The clock over the concourse said it was nearly midnight when we deplaned in our little airport at home."

I think that's an improvement, and it seems to me like all replacements of the undefined "it" might improve the work.

I like the first better.

Side note: there's at least one reader on Lit who gets mad about "deplaned".

 

[NotWise]

I like the first better.

Side note: there's at least one reader on Lit who gets mad about "deplaned".

It is North American English, but then I'm North American.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I wrote this sentence before I thought twice:

"It was almost midnight when we landed at the small airport at home."

"It" is the time of day. There's nothing to define the pronoun, but I think the usage is widely understood. Is there anything actually incorrect about the style or grammar? I usually edit it out when I find it, but I wonder.

The sentence became:

"The clock over the concourse said it was nearly midnight when we deplaned in our little airport at home."

I think that's an improvement, and it seems to me like all replacements of the undefined "it" might improve the work.

You've gone from an okay sentence to a talking clock. I'd stick with the first sentence. Also, I'd suggest a home is more usually a house, but I see you've got an airport in it.

"'Twas brillig and the slithy toves..." sets good precedence for the construct of the first part of your sentence, not so sure about the second part .

 

[TheLobster]

It is North American English, but then I'm North American.

Do you also decar, debike, and decycle?

 

[MrPixel]

This is a daily heated discussion I have with my wife. She'll be in the next room looking at or handling something and get on a harangue about "it" being a problem without specifying what "it" is since, again, I'm in another room and know not of what she speaks. Frustrating.

 

[Britva415]

This is a daily heated discussion I have with my wife. She'll be in the next room looking at or handling something and get on a harangue about "it" being a problem without specifying what "it" is since, again, I'm in another room and know not of what she speaks. Frustrating.

"Sorry, I thought you were talking to yourself, over there. What's the subject, now?"

 

[SimonDoom]

This is a daily heated discussion I have with my wife. She'll be in the next room looking at or handling something and get on a harangue about "it" being a problem without specifying what "it" is since, again, I'm in another room and know not of what she speaks. Frustrating.

And don't get me started with "they." "They" can put a man on the moon but "they" can't write decent instructions about how to hook up my cable box.

 

[Britva415]

And don't get me started with "they." "They" can put a man on the moon but "they" can't write decent instructions about how to hook up my cable box.

I leave both of those tasks to the professionals.

 

[YmaOHyd]

Reminds me of Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum:

Pseudolous: Madam, the hospitality of your house is being enjoyed by Miles Gloriosus.
Domina: The Gloriosus?
Pseudolous: The the himself!