What's new on IELTS with Fiona

In our live session on Saturday, we discussed the use of 'it' for emphasis', for example:

It was the Spaniards who introduced the Royal monopoly on salt.

Notice that 'was' is always singular because 'was' refers to 'it' ['it were* the Spaniards' is not possible].

'It' is often known as 'dummy it' because it does not refer to anything else in the sentence.

This 'dummy it' is often used in Listening and Reading texts, and it can be used to signal or emphasise the answer.

For example

• It was Benjamin Franklin who realised before anyone else (Laki Volcano listening)
• It was Lei Tzu who discovered silkworms. (The story of silk reading)
• Silkworm farming was restricted to women, and it was they who were responsible for the growing, harvesting and weaving. (The story of silk reading)

Can you find some more examples?