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When I was a high school student, I learned that it is normal to use "it" to avoid a long subject in English. I learned that "it" in such kind of sentences refers to the "to..." or "that...".

Below are some examples of such kind of sentence:

(1) It is very difficult for me to solve the problem.

(1a) To solve the problem is very difficult for me.

(2) It is important to sleep at least seven hours a day.

(2a)To sleep at least seven hours a day is important.

(3) It is said that Russia is the largest country in the world.

(3a) That Russia is the largest country in the world is said.

As a non-native speaker of English, (1a) sounds fine. (2a) makes sense but sounds awkward. (3a) sounds awkward or ungrammatical.

How would native English speakers feel when they encounter the sentence like (1a), (2a), or (3a)?

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    This seems more about perception and opinion rather than correctness. Could you please clarify your question to get a factual answer.
    – dubious
    Commented Jun 10 at 8:55
  • (3') doesn't work because It is said is an idiom meaning 'people in general say' or 'you often hear people say'. You could say something like "That Russia is the largest country in the world is a commonly held opinion", but it sounds rather stiff and formal.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Jun 10 at 9:34
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    I'd probably use the gerund forms 1) Solving the problem is very difficult for me, 2) Sleeping at least seven hours a day is important. But I don't really accept "it is normal to use "it" to avoid a long subject in English". I don't see a problem with a long noun phrase being the subject of a sentence - that sounds like something learners might struggle with, but not native Anglophones. It's just that there are many more contexts than It's raining where we use "non-specific" it like that.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jun 10 at 10:03

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This is explained in A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. It is a matter that has to do with information processing.

(CoGEL § 18.33) Extraposition of a clausal subject

Postponement which involves the replacement of the postponed element by a substitute form is termed EXTRAPOSITION. It operates almost exclusively on subordinate nominal clauses. The most important type of extraposition is that of a clausal subject - ie a subject realized by a finite or nonfinite clause. The subject is moved to the end of the sentence, and the normal subject position is filled by the anticipatory pronoun it. The resulting sentence thus contains two subjects, which we may identify as the POSTPONED SUBJECT (the one which is notionally the subject of the sentence) and the ANTICIPATORY SUBJECT (it). A simple rule for deriving a sentence with subject extraposition from one of more orthodox ordering is:

subject + predicate - it + predicate + subject

Thus:

To hear him say that + surprised me ~ It + surprised me + to hear him say that

But it is worth emphasizing that for clausal subjects […] the postponed position is more usual than the canonical position before the verb.

(1) It is very difficult for me to solve the problem.
(1a) To solve the problem is very difficult for me.

(2) It is important to sleep at least seven hours a day.
(2a)To sleep at least seven hours a day is important.

"1" and "2" are more usual.

(3) It is said that Russia is the largest country in the world.
(3a) That Russia is the largest country in the world is said.

"3a" is not idiomatic, that is, not likely to be used by natives.

(CoGEL § 18.33 Note) [a] For certain constructions which have all the appearance of clausal extraposition (it seems/appears/happened/chanced/etc), the corresponding nonextraposed version does not occur. For example there is no sentence That everything is fine seems to correspond to It seems that everything is fine, nor do we find *That he slipped arsenic into his tea is said. In such cases, we may say that the extraposition is obligatory. with main focus on the first element of the predicate.

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    An explanation having to do with information processing is that people usually expect that utterances will be structured so that their new information is at the end. Thus a sentence like Jamaica has some of the largest known deposits of Bauxite in the world would be natural where the topic has been natural resources in the Caribbeans, whereas Some of the largest deposits of bauxite known are in Jamaica would fit in a discussion of aluminum. In 3’, the verb phrase is said contains almost no information, and that’s why it seems weird to find it in the payoff position at the end.
    – PaulTanenbaum
    Commented Jun 10 at 10:42
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    I think it's a way of framing the payload. "It's no secret that __________". or "It's terribly inconvenient to ________".
    – TimR
    Commented Jun 10 at 11:08

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