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Every sentence can be divided into certain components which are called…

- - - - a noun in the common case (including substantivized adjectives and participles) (e.g. The fog is thinning.)
      - a nominal phrase with a noun (e.g. A great number of people were present.)
      - a noun in the genitive case (e.g. The grocer’s was full.)
      - a personal pronoun in the nominative case (e.g. She’s very beautiful.)
      - any other pronoun (e.g. Who told you this?)
      - a numeral or a nominative phrase with a numeral (e.g. The third was a young man with a dog.)
      - an infinitive, an infinitival phrase or an infinitive predicative complex (e.g. To understand is to forgive.)
      - a gerund, a gerundial phrase or a gerundial predicative complex (e.g. Talking mends no holes.)
      - words used as quotations (e.g. His “How do you do” never sounds cordial enough.)
      - a clause (e.g. What girls of her sort want is just a wedding ring.)
    - - The formal subject expressed by it is found in two patterns of sentences: those with impersonal it and those with introductory it.
      - The formal subject it is impersonal when it is used in sentences describing various states of nature, things in general, characteristics of the environment, or denoting time, distance, other measurements (e.g. It’s spring.).
      - The formal subject it is introductory (anticipatory) if it introduces the notional subject expressed by an infinitive, a gerund, an infinitive/gerundial phrase, a predicative complex, or a clause (e.g. It was no good coming there. Is there anybody there?). The sentence thus contains two subjects: the formal (introductory) subject it and the notional subject, which follows the predicate.