it

The word “it” means used to refer to a thing, animal, or abstract idea that has already been mentioned or is understood. In plain terms, the pronoun used for things, ideas, animals, or as a grammatical placeholder subject, rather than for people.

“It” is pronounced iht (/ɪt/ in IPA).

Here is “it” used in a sentence: “She picked up the book and put it on the shelf.”

“It” is a pronoun.

The word “it” comes from Old English. From Old English hit, from Proto-Germanic hit, related to this and here.

“It” is a very common word in modern English, usually learned at around the A1 level.

“It” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: used to refer to a thing, animal, or abstract idea that has already been mentioned or is understood.

"It's" is a contraction of "it is" or "it has": "it's raining." "Its" with no apostrophe is the possessive form: "the dog wagged its tail." Test by expanding the word: if "it is" or "it has" does not fit the sentence, write "its."

In sentences about weather, time, distance, and general conditions, "it" is a placeholder (or "dummy") subject with no real meaning: "It's raining", "It's five o'clock." English requires every full sentence to have a subject, and "it" simply fills that slot.

Normally no — people take "he", "she", or "they." "It" appears only in limited cases such as identifying someone ("Who is it?" — "It's Sam"), and using "it" for a person otherwise sounds impolite.

"It" refers neutrally to a thing already mentioned: "I read the report. It was long." "This" adds emphasis and often points to a whole idea or situation just described: "The report was ignored. This surprised everyone."