第44話：正しい英語を話そう（第5回）there isなど

Fix your broken English TODAY! Part 5 – Expletives

Before you Google Translate ‘expletives,’ I’d like to tell you first that in the world of grammar, they aren’t bad words. In grammar, expletives are also known as dummy subjects. In English, we often construct sentences using the S+V pattern:

Subject	Verb	Other elements
My dog	is barking	loudly.
She	sings.
I	left	my wallet.

With these sentences, it’s very easy to locate the subject of the sentence. Now, take a look at these sentences:


カタコト英語をなおそう！　パート５：所有格「There isなど」の使い方

みんなが「expletives」という単語をググる前に言っておくけど、英文法ではこれって「悪い意味」のほうではないからね。文法だと「expletives（助辞 / 虚辞）」は「仮主語」としても知られてるね。英語って「主語 ＋ 動詞」のパターンで文章を作るでしょ、例えば・・・

Subject	Verb	Other elements
My dog	is barking	loudly.
She	sings.
I	left	my wallet.

これらの文章は主語を見つけるのはとても簡単だよね。では次の文章を見てみよう。

There is a dog by the window.

It is important to exercise.

Can you pinpoint the subjects and the verbs?

If you chose there and it as subjects, and is as the verb---you’re wrong, unfortunately.

The subjects are: dog and to exercise

And the verb is: is

There is a dog by the window.

It is important to exercise.

みんな、主語と動詞を見つけられた？もしも「There」「It」が主語で、動詞は「is」だと答えたなら、残念ながら間違い。

本当の主語は「dog / to exercise」で動詞は「is」なんだな。

As I mentioned in the beginning of this blog, expletives are also known as dummy subjects, which simply means that they aren’t the actual subjects. It and There exist in the sentence but they are actually not grammatically connected with the rest of the sentence. Expletives are used to delay the subject to sound natural.

A dog is by the window. (less natural)

There is a dog by the window. (more natural)

To exercise is important. (less natural)

It is important to exercise. (more natural)


このブログの最初に言ったとおり、「expletives（助辞 / 虚辞）」は「仮主語」すなわち本当の主語じゃないんだ。「It」「There」が（主語の位置に）あるけど、文章内の他の部分には文法的にかかわっていないわけ。
「expletives」は文章のながれが自然になるように本当の主語を遅れてつかうためのものなんだね。

A dog is by the window. (ちょっと不自然な文章)

There is a dog by the window. (より自然な文章)

To exercise is important. (ちょっと不自然な文章)

It is important to exercise. (より自然な文章)

Have you ever wondered why we always say in English ‘It’s sunny.’ Or ‘It’s okay.’? Where’s the subject? The answer is it isn’t concrete. Therefore, we use the expletive ‘it’ to fill the void that is the absence of a concrete subject.

As you can see, we use expletives all the time!

It will take time to wrap your head around this information but the sooner you get used to using expletives correctly, the more natural you will sound when speaking English.

Try this. There are less natural sentences that follows. Now, I want you to use the expletives it and there to make them sound more natural.

1.     To do physical exercise every day is necessary.
2.     A hospital is in the town.
3.     An exit is around the corner.
4.     Sunny
5.     To get to the nearest station takes about 10 minutes.

英語で「It's sunny.」「It's okay.」みたいに「it」を使うの不思議に思ったことない？主語はどれかというと、「実在しない」んだ。だから「実在する主語がない」のを埋めるために「expletives（助辞 / 虚辞）」の「it」を使うんだ。
ご覧のように私たちは「expletives」をしょっちゅう使うよ！

これが使いこなせるようになるまで時間かかるだろうけど、「expletives」を正しく使えるようすぐなれるし、そうすればより自然な英語が話せるようになります。

では問題。以下にちょっと不自然な英語の文章があるね。それを「It」「there」を使ってより自然な文章にしてみて。

1.     To do physical exercise every day is necessary.
2.     A hospital is in the town.
3.     An exit is around the corner.
4.     Sunny
5.     To get to the nearest station takes about 10 minutes.

Here are the possible answers.　　　※答えはこちら。

1.     It is necessary to do physical exercise.

2.     There is a hospital in the town.

3.     There an exit around the corner.

4.     It’s sunny.

5.     It takes about 10 minutes to get to the nearest train station.