This article focuses on the structural and semantic analysis of the sentences containing the pronoun "it" as a formal object. Although at first sight "it" seems to have no meaning whatsoever, it actually plays an important role in the semantic structure of the sentence. The formal object "it" changes the subcategorical meaning of a polyfunctional verb and frequently its semantics. "It" blocks up the objective valency of the verb, often changing its meaning and transforming it into an intransitive verb. (Author/VWL)