Avoiding False Subjects

A false subject is a construction in which it or there appears to be the subject of a sentence or clause, but upon analysis is really a nonsensical word. The true subject is either missing or buried in the sentence, that is, it is not obvious. For example, a common expression in English is It is raining. But what is it? The three constructions that commonly indicate a false subject are It is, There is, and There are.

The use of false subjects in English is acceptable, idiomatic, and usually clear to English speakers. But most other languages have no comparable idiom. Translators have difficulty translating sentences with false subjects because they have trouble identifying the true subject of the sentence.

Most sentences that contain false subjects can be easily revised so that the subject is easily identified. Consider this example:

There are currently no logs on this server.

From the structure of the sentence, there appears to be the subject but the actual subject is logs. The sentence can be revised as follows:

No logs are currently on this server.