A preparatory subject is a placeholder noun used before the actual subject (infinitive expression, a clause) is introduced in the sentence.
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It looks as if we're going to have trouble with Anna again.
'It' is a preparatory subject here. -
It felt like I was riding a normal bicycle not an electric bicycle.
I don't know if 'It' is a preparatory subject. Or should I use 'This bicycle' instead of 'It' if not preparatory? -
It looked like it was going to rain, so we took an umbrella.
can we use 'It' as a preparatory subject in such sentences?
Or does 'It' before verbs like (sound, feel, look) only refer to some specific thing or situation?
Best Answer
Yes, you can. All your examples are fine.
The "it" does not represent a semantic argument and cannot be replaced by any other noun phrase. There is no question of dummy "it" being a preparatory element, since the elements that follow it do not give the meaning if "it".
"It" is, then, just a dummy element serving the syntactic purpose of filling the obligatory subject position.