Is it because what we’re saying is: it is days like this one, and all others like it, that collectively (followed by 3rd person plural verb form)?
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Because it's an idiom. Subject it, when not pointing to something non-human, is normally part of an idiom. Don't expect it to follow agreement rules. – John Lawler Nov 04 '23 at 18:18
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Not many people would use plural *these* in the cited context anyway. Most of us (particularly, Brits) say It's days like this...** But I suppose *these* might make more sense if, for example, *yesterday* shared the same contextually relevant attributes as today (with the expectation that *tomorrow* would be the same). – FumbleFingers Nov 04 '23 at 18:25
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1Does this answer your question? It's + plural noun Or perhaps better use of here's before a plural noun/ noun phrase. Here's / It's use the sentence-delaying device in a number-transparent way 'It's us' has been mentioned many times on ELU. It are / Here're would be awful. – Edwin Ashworth Nov 04 '23 at 19:05
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Could you please post what you mean?? – Lambie Nov 04 '23 at 19:24
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It's is a dummy pronoun contracted with the verb is. In situations where English syntax demands a subject but there aren't better options for a subject, it can act non-referentially to jump-start the sentence. For instance, in
It is raining
nothing specific is being referred to as raining. That is just how we express a state of weather: it's idiomatic.
The dummy pronoun is used with several kinds of statements, including those referring to time ("Dummy Pronouns," Lund University). It's can be followed by a singular or plural verb, e.g.,
It's a year I'll never forget.
It's 5 minutes I'll never get back.
As for days like this [day] versus days like these [days], the choice depends on whether you are thinking of one specific day or an indeterminate series of days. You could use either, as Ngram results illustrate:
It's days like this ...
It's days like these ...
TaliesinMerlin
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Consider a sentence like this one:
It is days like these that always prove most difficult.
In this sentence, the word it isn't acting as an ordinary referential pronoun; it doesn't refer to the "days" or to anything else. Instead, it's part of a construction known as an it-cleft. In this construction, the singular pronoun it is used as the subject of to be, so to be has to be singular in form. But this pronoun is just a placeholder; it stands in for something defined by the relative clause at the end of the sentence, which is equivalent in meaning to "The x such that x always prove most difficult = these days."
(My source for the above is Huddleston & Pullum (2002), pp. 1414-1420.)
alphabet
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